About Us
by M-Maltesers
Summary: Continuation of and sequel to 'Satisfaction'. AtoYuu. Atobe isn't sure if it could be called 'dating'. Oshitari and Gakuto think otherwise, creating a mess for Atobe and Yuuta, and Yuuta can't help but be swept up in it.
1. Chapter 1

Notes: There's actually some inconsistency in this story between use of 'Mukahi' and 'Gakuto' actually, but they're the same annoying little guy anyway. XD This is the sequel to **Satisfaction**, which is now complete. :D Enjoy 'About Us'!

Also, before someone asks, yes; this story has a happy ending. I rather like it so please stick around for it :3

Archive: NO.

Reviews: Nice, but not obligatory. I do, however, appreciate them. :D

**About Us**

Chapter 1

By Miki

Mukahi walked into the clubroom, his bag swung over one shoulder as he declared his latest plan to Oshitari.

Oshitari didn't pay him any attention.

Well, admittedly he was hearing what was coming out of Mukahi's mouth – not hearing Mukahi was impossible given he was talking at the speed of a machine gun and was currently nearly as loud as one – but he wasn't really paying any attention to the words.

He couldn't really understand Mukahi's continued fascination with "Yuu-chan", especially since Oshitari himself had taken some time to think about the evidence and decided that… Actually, there was none.

At any rate, the only piece of tangible evidence that anyone called "Yuu" even existed was that entry in Atobe's address book, and given that he'd never been close enough to Atobe to overhear his conversations or read his text messages – he'd tried probing Kabaji but the boy's knowledge was apparently harder to access than the switch to the Tokyo electricity grid – Oshitari wasn't even sure anymore whether Yuu-chan was even the source of Atobe's unpredictable mood swings. And if Yuu-chan wasn't the source of Atobe's mood swings, then there was little else to suggest that she was in any way important to Atobe at all.

He wasn't sure anymore, either, where the idea she was his girlfriend had come from.

It was entirely possible, after all, that she was just another of those girls his parents wanted him to meet. Parents like Atobe's generally seemed to think their sons and daughters should only be meeting a certain type of person… That was, the type of person they themselves liked.

Although, now that he considered it… perhaps Yuu-chan… wasn't even a girl.

"Yuushi!" Mukahi suddenly snapped, and Oshitari realised Mukahi was expecting an answer.

"Huh?" he turned around, giving something of a disinterested look.

Mukahi frowned a little, annoyed Oshitari hadn't been paying him any attention.

"I said," he repeated, "it's only a matter of time."

Oshitari simply sighed.

(S)

Atobe crossed his legs; right over left. A moment later, he uncrossed them and pulled out his phone, fiddling a little. Couldn't the time pass any faster than this?

He sighed a little, trying to maintain his look of extreme ennui, but somehow, it just wasn't working right now. So he crossed his legs – left over right – and twiddled his thumbs. Somehow, he felt as though he had too much energy and nowhere to use it. He really wanted to play a match right now, though really, it was out of the question.

It was much too sunny right now, and sitting here under the umbrella was a lot better for his skin than running around when the UV index was so excessively high and it was clear that tanning was not in Ore-sama's best interests.

And besides, he wanted to be on time for his… His…

He hesitated. Would one call it a 'date'?

(S)

"Choutarou! What are you doing?" Shishido yelled for what felt like the millionth time that afternoon.

He stepped toward the net; frustrated at the way his doubles partner kept losing his focus on their singles match. Sure, it was a practise match, but a match was a match, and Ootori was just being so…

"Ah, sorry Shihsido-senpai!" Ootori apologised, hand automatically tightening around the tennis ball in its grip. He didn't stop staring across toward the side though, and Shishido scowled as he realised where Ootori's eyes were directed once again.

_Atobe_.

What was so damn interesting about Atobe today? Suddenly everyone was staring at him like they'd never seen the stupid, prissy king of Hyotei before!

Not only that, Shishido could swear Ootori was looking at him with that look that meant he actually _liked_ looking at him, which was really pissing Shishido off because damnit! Ootori only gave that look to _him_!

It wasn't like there was anything different about Atobe today. He was being his normal self – that was, he was doing absolutely nothing, sipping on what Shishido would assume was lemonade, playing with his phone, and making Kabaji stand next to him.

Shishido just didn't get it. Why was it always about Atobe?

"Hey, Shishido-senpai?"

"What?" Shishido snapped back, realising Ootori had approached the net and was leaning over it a little.

Ootori blushed suddenly, whether out of embarrassment or nervousness, Shishido didn't know. "Oh, nothing," he said, though Shishido could tell there was something he wanted to say.

He raised an eyebrow slightly at the boy, waiting for him to talk.

"Well," Ootori began, "do you… Do you think maybe Atobe made up with Yuu-chan?"

Shishido scowled. _What the hell?_

He ignored the question and stomped back toward the back of the court to receive Ootori's serve.

"Choutarou!" he growled out, "are you serving or not?"

"Y-yes, Shishido-senpai!" Ootori answered as Shishido continued to glare at him.

All he'd heard today was Atobe-this, Atobe-that from the rest of the players, and Mukahi – stupid redheaded idiot he was – was still talking about Yuu-chan this and Yuu-chan that, and since when was it any of their business what Atobe did anyway?

He couldn't wait for practise to end. Then he could go home, where there were no stupid Hyotei idiots, no stupid little redhead Mukahi, and most of all, no Atobe.

(S)

Atobe was still undecided as to whether it was a date or not. Somehow, he just hadn't brought up the subject with Yuuta on Friday night… Although truthfully, they hadn't really had a chance after _that_, since they'd been rather rudely interrupted.

Apparently librarians didn't particularly like finding teenage boys kissing in between the bookshelves, something which Atobe thought was rather stupid given that public libraries were for public use, funded by public taxes and therefore, did they not have the right to do as they pleased as long as they were using the library for something constructive?

He might have said that at the time, and might have pointed out that his parents actually paid more tax per year than that silly librarian would ever earn in his entire life and that that in itself entitled him to use the library as he wanted, and that there was no one else around to be disturbed anyway, and that the librarian could have easily ignored them had he chosen to not be such an annoyance…

Except that Atobe hadn't thought of all that until afterwards.

Probably because at that moment, all he'd been thinking about was… well, Yuuta. That, and apparently his mouth hadn't been inclined to cooperate with his brain, resulting in something of an embarrassing one-sided lecture from an under-qualified librarian.

It had reminded him why he didn't like listening to most public servants speak. One tended to find them tedious and lacking in cultivated opinions.

After that he'd had to drop Yuuta back at the dormitory since skipping dinner and leaving the dorm without permission was going to mean being grounded, which was why Atobe wished practise would hurry up and end so he could see Yuuta today.

Which, in turn, brought Atobe to his current problem, which was whether or not one would call spending time with Yuuta a date or not.

When they'd gone out together before, Atobe had never thought of those times as being 'dates'. But then, after Friday…

Atobe felt his cheeks reddening; an almost automatic reaction to the thoughts running through his head.

Something about the idea of actually dating Yuuta… Or maybe it was just thinking of Yuuta… made him feel just a little bit nervous. Nervous, but that warm feeling was still in his chest, and it felt good.

He wondered what they'd do today. He hadn't actually thought it through at all… It was kind of embarrassing, but he really wanted to start where they'd left off last time…

His cheeks flushed a little and he wondered if it would be okay with Yuuta. He'd said last time that he didn't _hate_ kissing, so maybe… But then, he didn't want to push it, just in case Yuuta wasn't really ready.

If they were just kissing, then it should be okay, Atobe reasoned.

And then he looked up quickly, conscious of where he was. Maybe thinking about these sorts of things at training wasn't such a good idea. Was it his imagination or were there more people than usual simply staring at him today? It wasn't that he was particularly annoyed at the attention – he was rather used to it and he did like to be reminded that he was aesthetically pleasing to the eye after all… But… Somehow…

He peered at the courts, and caught Ootori staring at him. Shishido was giving him a glare.

"Kabaji," he said, at the same time remembering the drink next to him.

"Usu," came the comfortingly familiar reply.

Atobe picked up his lemonade and took a sip through the straw, frowning at the slight warmth of the glass. "Go and tell Shishido and Ootori that if they don't want to play, they can start running laps," he instructed, looking up at Kabaji as he spoke. The boy was looking down at him attentively, eyes unblinking, as usual.

"They're not on the court for decoration, after all," Atobe added, giving a little flick of his wrist to indicate that was all.

"Usu," Kabaji replied, heading off toward their court, where they seemed to be talking rather than making any progress in their game.

Atobe put down his drink again and uncrossed his legs. For a moment he played with his phone again, content to read back over Yuuta's last message, reassuring himself that he was meeting Yuuta today, and that he was picking Yuuta up after training. Then he crossed his legs again, fiddled some more and wondered why he couldn't leave already.

He glanced at his watch, but it told the same time his phone did, and he cursed the fact that time seemed to be mocking him. Really, why couldn't practise hurry up and finish?

(S)

"Shishido-senpai?"

Shishido tilted his head toward Ootori slightly as they walked.

"Are you… Do you want to come over today?" Ootori asked, cheeks blushing just a little.

Shishido grunted. "I'm going home."

He was annoyed at Ootori and he intended to show it. Imagining the look Ootori had on his face right now was enough to make him walk faster toward the street where they split up, just so he didn't have to see those annoyingly big, brown eyes his team mate possessed.

Stupid Atobe. Why was everyone staring at him today? Sure, he'd looked somehow… different… Friendlier perhaps? He'd definitely been in a better mood than he'd been in lately, but that was no reason to stare at him.

Jeez, Ootori was practically the worst of them too.

"Shishido-senpai."

"What?"

Shishido could tell from Ootori's voice that he must have stopped walking.

"Did I… do something?" the boy asked, and Shishido had to stop himself from turning around. He ignored the uncomfortable feeling in his chest – that feeling that he got whenever he could hear Ootori wasn't happy about something – and shoved one of his hands in his pocket.

Honestly, Ootori just didn't get it. He was so nice all the time, sometimes Shishido couldn't help but feel jealous, like he wanted to tell him to stop treating everyone the same way. He was even nice to Mukahi and Mukahi was a stupid little overly-flexible freak of nature.  
About to turn around and face Ootori, he suddenly found a pair of arms wrapping around his chest from behind; the familiar firmness of Ootori's chin on his shoulder.

"What are you doing?" he snapped quickly, eyes instinctively looking around them. "You can't just! –"

"Can't I?" Ootori asked quietly, and Shishido knew he'd hurt him.

He didn't mean to.

It was just that Ootori was making him nervous, and the thought that someone they knew might just see them was always in the back of his mind when they were together like this…

He didn't know what he'd say if anyone asked what they were doing.

"Do you… I mean, are you embarrassed about… me?" Ootori continued.

Shishido heard him swallow and immediately regretted having said anything.

As he felt Ootori pulling his arms away, he caught them with his hands and held them there. "Don't."

"Don't what?" Ootori said; still sounding a little upset, but he didn't pull his arms away.

Shishido could feel the blood rushing to his face. He didn't answer Ootori, but instead just held his arms still, one hand slowly trailing along his arm to grasp his fingers. The palm of Ootori's hand was hot.

"Let's go," Shishido demanded gruffly, breaking their embrace as he began walking; his hand still grasping Ootori's.

"Where are we going?" Ootori asked quickly, sounding happier at the thought of going somewhere together.

"Your house," came Shishido's blunt answer, and Ootori was suddenly glad he'd decided to clean his room after all.

Now he just had to hope he'd remembered to throw his dirty boxers in the wash this morning and not on the floor.

(S)

Yuuta reached for the door of the limo, still surprised when the chauffeur beat him to it, even though he'd done it so many times before. He ducked his head, peeking inside and feeling less nervous when he glimpsed Atobe sitting at the opposite side of the vehicle.

Atobe had his eyebrow raised so Yuuta hurriedly got in, sat down and looked across at him.

"Atobe," he said, just a little bit nervously.

"Yuuta," was the smooth reply.

Yuuta looked at Atobe, who was making a point of looking at the distance in between them. "Is there something wrong with sitting next to me today?" Atobe asked, expression demanding that Yuuta move his bottom. Now.

Yuuta felt his face turning pink and shuffled over duly, trying not to look at Atobe as he did so. It was hard to shuffle a whole metre and a half over a seat and do it subtly, he realised.

"Honestly," Atobe chided a little, "one would have thought I was infectious."

"T-That wasn't it," Yuuta protested uselessly, squirming a little on the seat.

Atobe said nothing but hid his smile and glanced out of the window as the limo started moving.

Yuuta glanced at Atobe's legs as he crossed them, and his eyes were drawn to Atobe's hands… The way he placed them neatly in his lap and the way he crossed his legs, he looked incredibly… graceful. The way his shirt sat against his chest and the way his trousers sat just right above his hips… The wrinkles in his trousers…

Yuuta realised he was staring at Atobe's hands again, and as Atobe moved a hand, he quickly looked away.

"So where are we going?" he asked, finding a safe topic before Atobe chose one which wasn't so safe.

Atobe shook his head slightly, noticing with a twinge of disappointment that he might just have missed his chance. "I haven't thought that far ahead yet. Do you have a preference or shall we eat at the usual place?"

He'd been too busy thinking about other things… Like how to broach the subject with Yuuta without making it seem as though he'd actually been planning it all afternoon. Because of course, he hadn't. For the most part, he'd been wondering about how to get Yuuta to do _that_ with him again.

As he thought about it again, he realised Yuuta had a hand on the seat just next to him. If he could just put his there as well… It wouldn't look so suspicious since they were sitting close together anyway…

"The usual," Yuuta repeated slowly. "Oh, you mean… the French restaurant?"

"Yes, that one. I feel rather like casserole, and of course mother was so unkind as to forget to remind anyone at home to buy the necessary ingredients," Atobe complained, making Yuuta wonder if now was a good time to confess he wasn't actually fond of casseroles made of snails.

"I…" he began, beginning to say so, when he felt a warm touch on his hand and jerked in surprise, quickly looking down to see Atobe slipping his hand into his.

"You were saying?" Atobe prompted.

A little thrill of pleasure rushed through him as he felt Yuuta's fingers curling around his hand tentatively, and he was glad he'd had practise at public speaking. It was useful when applied to similarly nerve-wracking situations.

"I… That sounds nice," Yuuta murmured, sounding for a moment like his mother.

He'd be able to avoid the snails. Somehow.

And besides, it seemed as though Atobe really liked that restaurant.

It wasn't just about him. It would have been selfish to ask to go somewhere else just because he didn't like snails… Even if they were rubbery things which normally crawled around a garden.

He glanced down at their hands again, and wondered if Atobe could feel the way his heartbeat was making his whole body feel funny. Experimentally, he moved the tips of his fingers over the back of Atobe's hand. His hand was softer than he'd have thought.

Atobe's skin felt smooth and much less calloused than Yuuta knew his own hands to be, and for a moment, it crossed Yuuta's mind to wonder if the rest of Atobe's body was like this. He blushed at the thought and when he glanced at Atobe's face, Atobe looked a bit pink too.

They held each other's hands all the way to the restaurant.

.tbc.


	2. Chapter 2

Archive: NO.

Reviews: Nice, but not obligatory. I do, however, appreciate them. :D

**About Us**

Chapter 2

By Miki

The moment the chauffeur opened the door, Yuuta realised he had to let go of Atobe's hand.

He hesitated for just a second, and then pulled his hand away from Atobe's – Atobe was going to pull him out of the vehicle if he got his way – and somehow, he ended up standing awkwardly next to Atobe at the kerb of the road.

He shifted his feet and took a step away from Atobe, instinctively trying to put just a little distance between them again.

People stared as they walked past.

"Yuuta?"

Atobe raised an eyebrow at him, seemingly demanding an explanation as he held out his hand again. Yuuta felt his cheeks turning pink and he looked away, hurriedly shoving his hands into his pockets.

"So… Are we doing in?" he asked, trying to distract Atobe.

"A-Ah, of course…" Atobe replied, quickly taking back his hand and putting it into his pocket as well.

Yuuta watched him step toward the door. His chest felt just a little bit tight and he grasped the material inside his pockets.

(S)

Atobe glanced at Yuuta, watching him stare at the menu in serious concentration. They'd given him the menu in French again, which made Atobe wonder how much longer it would be before Yuuta asked for a translation. Under the table, he tentatively inched his foot along the ground, trying to estimate the distance to Yuuta's legs.

It wasn't such a big table so Yuuta's legs should be –

"Atobe?"

"Yuuta?"

He looked up quickly, his foot pausing in its movement.

"Which one is the dish I like?" Yuuta asked, looking a bit embarrassed.

Atobe blinked. "Which one…" he repeated. He glanced down at the menu, trailing his finger down the page. "Ah, that's right. You liked the casserole, didn't you? You tried some of mine the first time we came here."

"Er…"

Atobe raised an eyebrow at the look on Yuuta's face. One would think he could remember which were the dishes he liked and which ones he didn't like. "The garlic snails, remember?" he prompted.

For a moment, Yuuta simply stared back at him. Then he put his hand to the back of his head and Atobe realised he suddenly looked incredibly uncomfortable.

"Actually…"

Atobe waited.

"I… don't like snails."

(S)

Yuuta wasn't sure if it was really a good time to have said something… like that.

Atobe looked horrified. He looked like Mizuki had looked the time that first year had presented his white school shirt to him in pink because he'd thrown it in the wash with Mizuki's underwear. He looked like he was possibly in shock.

"So what don't you like about snails?" Atobe asked finally, one eyebrow raised.

Yuuta tried not to look at the expression on the other boy's face. Somehow it always made him want to either hide or blurt out the first thing that came to mind, just so that Atobe would stop it with the eyebrow.

"You do, of course, realise that we're currently sitting in one of the country's most celebrated French restaurants and that what you just said is quite possibly sacrilege?" Atobe prompted, taking a sip of his water.

Yuuta fiddled with his fork. He couldn't believe Atobe was taking it so seriously.

"So what did you actually think of the casserole last time you tried it?"

Yuuta sighed. Now he was going to have to make another confession.

"I didn't try it," he admitted.

"You didn't…" Atobe repeated.

Yuuta looked up at him, trying not to smile at the look on his face. He looked confused.

"But I gave you some of mine," Atobe insisted; 'some' meaning one individual snail.

Yuuta tried not to laugh.

"I… didn't eat it," he confessed. Then – quickly, so that Atobe couldn't say anything else – he added, "I didn't drop it under the table or anything, you know."

"So what did you do with it if you didn't eat it?" Atobe demanded.

"I put it in my soup…"

Atobe looked speechless. But of course, Atobe was almost never really speechless.

"So you put a piece of my favourite snail casserole in your onion soup, which was then taken back to the kitchen and thrown into the garbage because you didn't eat the last of that either…"

"Er… Yes?"

"Well," Atobe huffed and flicked his menu, "I guess we know what you won't be ordering today then."

Yuuta blinked, watching the other boy with his perfect hair and his straight tie and his French menu and that look of absolute incense on his face.

He wondered what it was about Atobe that made him want to laugh right now. Then he wondered if perhaps he should hide his face behind his menu, just in case Atobe realised he was laughing and got grumpier.

(S)

"What is it?" Atobe demanded, placing his menu flat on the table and giving Yuuta what he hoped was the "I'm unimpressed" look.

Yuuta's smile twitched and he tried not to look Atobe in the eyes.

"Nothing," was the response, and Atobe knew Yuuta wanted to laugh at him.

"Honestly," he sniffed, "you don't need to…"

He trailed off as Yuuta lost control and burst into laughter. A quick glance around the restaurant revealed that no one was watching them – except the waiters, and that was their job – so Atobe sighed and kicked his leg out under the table. It wouldn't do to have waiters seeing him doing less than suitable things above the table, even if Yuuta was currently laughing at him.

Except that now, he was staring at him in surprise.

At least now Atobe knew it wasn't very far to Yuuta's legs at all.

"I can't believe you just kicked me," Yuuta blinked.

"I can't believe you wasted such a precious snail," Atobe replied, his tone flat and his eyebrow raised.

Yuuta though, couldn't keep a straight face for very long, since Atobe saw his lips curve again as he grinned.

He was starting to wonder what on earth he was doing in here with the boy when he seemed to be absurdly intent on laughing the entire evening and never getting around to ordering anything at all.

"Atobe," Yuuta said.

Atobe flicked his hair.

"I'm sorry about the snail," Yuuta apologised, "but you know… It's okay to laugh… about stuff."

Atobe sighed.

Yuuta smiled at him a little uncertainly and Atobe was reminded for a moment that it was just the two of them here. If out of seven days in a week, he could only spend one or two nights with Yuuta, then… Maybe he ought to be laughing about the snail instead of feeling so annoyed about it. And besides, he wasn't truly annoyed, although it was something of a dent to his ego that someone wouldn't do as he'd asked.

Not that he'd really asked; it was more like he'd assumed…

Really, though, wasn't that just a little bit immature of Yuuta not to try the snail and still declare he didn't like them?

(S)

Yuuta looked across at Atobe's dish, rather glad he hadn't eaten that snail last time after all. There was something really wrong about eating such weird, small, shrivelled up things as snails. He really couldn't see why people would eat them at all, except that they were supposed to be a delicacy in France, but French people probably had weird tastebuds.

He picked up his spoon, preparing to start on his soup – which was about as normal as soup could be and definitely didn't have any snails in it – when Atobe smirked at him.

"Yuuta?"

Something told Yuuta that he wasn't going to like the words that were going to come out of Atobe's mouth.

He watched as Atobe picked up his fork and skewered one of those small, yucky things and then held it out to him.

"Here, try it."

Yuuta froze.

"Honestly, you can hardly tell me you have a dislike for them if you've never tried them before," Atobe continued, pushing the fork slightly closer to Yuuta's mouth.

Yuuta opened his mouth to protest –

He didn't like snails. Snails were yucky and slimy and came out of the garden where they left those weird slimy trails all over the ground. Normal people stepped on them. Normal people didn't put them in their mouths. Normal people didn't…

Before he could get anything out of his mouth, he found himself with the fork shoved into his mouth instead and he instinctively closed his lips on it.

And Atobe pulled the fork from his mouth, effectively leaving the snail on Yuuta's tongue.

Yuuta was frozen. There was a snail in his mouth.

A snail.

Oh.

He could taste butter and garlic and… and…

He watched Atobe call the waiter over, handing him the fork and asking for a new one. Did Atobe think he had funny germs or something? Jeez.

He watched as the waiter returned, fork in hand, and proceeded to place it on the table, fixing up the cutlery into lines again.

He watched as Atobe skewered another snail with his fork, and put it in his mouth, chewing and swallowing.

"Do you still have that thing in your mouth?" Atobe suddenly asked, and Yuuta simply stared back.

He wanted to spit it out. He could swear it felt like it was crawling on his tongue. Was it even cooked properly? Maybe they'd made a mistake and it was still alive.

For a moment, Atobe had that incredulous look on his face again. Then, all of a sudden, he grinned.

"He-" Yuuta started to say, forgetting he had something on his tongue.

He coughed unpleasantly for a moment and swallowed it down, hurriedly reaching for his water and gulping down half the glass. Atobe was laughing at him.

"What's so…"

He wanted to ask what was so funny, but he didn't, because Atobe was laughing.

_Atobe_… was laughing.

Yuuta couldn't help it. Snail completely forgotten, he smiled back.

(S)

Atobe walked Yuuta to the lobby of the dormitory.

Yuuta didn't protest this time, and Atobe decided to risk his chances, stepping just a little closer to Yuuta as they reached the glass doors.

"Well…" Yuuta said, speaking just to fill in the silence.

"Hm?"

"I'm going in then."

Atobe tilted his head slightly.

"Aren't you forgetting something?"

Yuuta looked at him quickly, in the middle of turning around.

"What?"

"Where's my thank you?" Atobe demanded, all his concentration going in to keeping his face straight and trying not to turn pink.

Instead, it was Yuuta who turned pink. "Um… But I don't-"

Atobe rolled his eyes a little, his embarrassment hidden as he slightly jerkily grabbed Yuuta's tie and pulled him, stumbling, the two small steps back to him. "I meant," he said gently, "like this."

And he quickly pressed his lips to Yuuta's before Yuuta could say anything else.

Yuuta's eyes looked the size of saucers when Atobe pulled away a moment later.

"I…"

"I had a good time tonight," Atobe said, letting go of Yuuta's tie and wondering if those wrinkles would have to be ironed out. "You're free on the weekend, aren't you?"

"Er… I think so…" Yuuta blurted out. "But I-"

"Well," Atobe cut him off quickly, "I'll see you then."

Yuuta stood still, his mind completely blank for a good five minutes even after he'd heard Atobe's "good night" and seen the black vehicle drive off.

Atobe was so… Atobe was…

He glanced behind him, seeing the rows of lit dormitory windows and the people moving around in the rooms behind them. He wanted to tell himself that Atobe was either crazy or stupid. Anyone could have seen them.

Yet… He couldn't help but look forward to the weekend and hope that maybe, Atobe would be crazy enough to do that again.

.tbc.


	3. Chapter 3

Archive: NO.

Reviews: Nice, but not obligatory. I do, however, appreciate them. :D

**About Us**

Chapter 3

By Miki

"What are you so happy about, da ne?" 

Yuuta, sprawled on his stomach on his bed, looked up from his magazine in surprise. He hadn't heard the door click open and seeing Yanagisawa's face sort of ruined his mood.

Quickly shoving his phone into his pocket, he scowled, hoping Yanagisawa hadn't seen him grinning at it…

He might say something to Mizuki, and then who knew what would happen?

Yanagisawa noticed though, and waved his tennis racquet accusingly.

"You don't have to get grumpy just 'cause I'm talking to you, da ne! What's up with that, da ne? If you didn't want anyone to talk to you, you should've locked the door, da ne!"

Yuuta's scowl turned into a glare as he glanced that way and noticed Yanagisawa had left his door wide open and there were guys walking up and down the hallway and peeking in.

"It _was_ shut, you know," he pointed out crankily, flicking the page and pretending to be interested in Shiba Saori's photographs of Echizen Ryoma. "_Normal_ people knock first."

Yanagisawa frowned at him for a moment before he shifted his racquet so it sat on his shoulder and stared down at Yuuta.

Changing the topic, he asked "We're going to play doubles anyway. You want to come?"

Yuuta assumed 'we' meant Kisarazu and he shook his head. Hadn't they all had enough tennis for the day already? There was no way he'd tell it to Yanagisawa, but he was waiting for Atobe to message back. Not because they were talking about anything important or anything; just because he liked getting messages from Atobe.

So he was betting his phone bill was going to be a whole lot bigger this month than ever before.

His mother might ask him something funny, like whether he'd gotten a girlfriend who liked to talk on the phone or something…

Yuuta wasn't sure what he'd say if she did ask though, because…

He was sort of – well, he thought he was, but he wasn't that sure since they hadn't talked about it – dating Atobe, and Atobe was pretty good at chewing up money by making him send messages all the time…

Except that Atobe wasn't a girl.

On the other hand, Yuuta wasn't sure if his mother would get a chance to ask him because Aniki might just _accidentally_ tell her before then. Though when Yuuta thought about it, Aniki was more likely to hint at it to Nee-san, who'd work it out, because Nee-san always worked everything out, just like Aniki always intended her to, and then Nee-san might tell his mother… Who might send him to counselling sessions with a shrink.

"But you're not doing anything, da ne!" Yanagisawa complained loudly, interrupting Yuuta's thoughts.

It was probably a good thing, as they were currently in the process of spiralling down into the depths of his worst nightmare.

Yuuta shot him a smouldering glare and Yanagisawa glared back.

Then the door was thrown wide open – as if it hadn't been open enough before – and Mizuki marched in, raising an eyebrow at the expression on Yuuta's face. "Come, Yuuta," he demanded, tennis racquet in his hand.

Kisarazu stuck his head around the doorway a moment later, and Yuuta scowled, knowing he was outnumbered. He sat up, feeling slightly tired. Then he rubbed at his hair and kept scowling when his three team mates didn't take the hint.

"Can I get changed without an audience?" he growled out.

Atobe probably never had to put up with idiots tramping into his room and demanding things like this.

"Well, I was going to leave, but if you're inviting us to stay, then I'll just…" Mizuki stepped further into the room and leaned against the wall.

Yuuta twitched.

"… make myself comfortable," Mizuki finished, smirking at the look of irritation on Yuuta's face.

Yuuta took a moment to process Mizuki's words, and then picked up his shorts and shirt and stalked past the intruders to his bathroom.

The door slammed shut a moment later, and Mizuki, regretfully, heard the sound of the lock clicking.

Yanagisawa pulled a face.

"I thought girlfriends were supposed to make you happy, da ne."

(S)

Atobe narrowed his eyes at Mukahi.

Obviously Mukahi thought he couldn't see him, since he was committing a sin and didn't even have the slightest look of guilt on his face, but Ore-sama had twenty-twenty vision and saw _everything_. And currently, what he was seeing was pissing him off.

Mukahi was clicking away at his phone. Atobe assumed he was messaging someone, though he could easily have been playing a game as well. Either way, it was annoying him.

"Mukahi."

"Huh?"

He looked up.

Behind him, Oshitari smirked.

"Don't 'huh' me," Atobe retorted. "What are you doing with your phone?" he demanded quickly, wanting to catch Mukahi out.

There was a pause and Atobe heard a blip come from the object in question. He twitched.

"FIFA '07," Mukahi grumbled, knowing that Oshitari was probably finding pleasure in his pain. Stupid sadist.

He stomped on his friend's foot accordingly.

Atobe twitched.

As much as he enjoyed watching Oshitari suffer once in a while, he didn't like it to be at the expense of his own time. He wanted to hurry up and get through Sakaki's notes so they could train so he could go home and call Yuuta. Not that he was going to wait that long.

He was intending to call him the moment he was safely inside his limousine, away from everyone else who'd been trying to eavesdrop on him as of late.

Having Mukahi play with his phone while he was trying to get through the pile of papers Sakaki had left him, was not doing anyone any favours.

"And why are you playing FIFA '07 when Ore-sama's talking to you?" he demanded haughtily.

Beside him, Kabaji stayed motionless. His eyes however, were following the movements of Mukahi's hands… which were currently the objects of Atobe's ire.

"Give me the phone," Atobe demanded, just as Gakuto opened his mouth to answer.

He was fed up with the afternoon, and he couldn't be bothered trying to do anything in a less confronting manner. He couldn't even be bothered making Kabaji do it for him, which was really saying something.

Two minutes later, Gakuto's phone having been confiscated and Atobe still droning on through Sakaki's notes, there was a buzz.

Atobe twitched.

_Now_ whose phone was it?

He cursed whoever's stupid phone had the audacity to ring while he was speaking, and looked around the room; eyes scanning the possible culprits.

"Didn't I just say-"

Ootori blinked back at him.

Gakuto sniggered.

Oshitari smirked.

And then Atobe realised the vibration was coming from the table behind him.

He spun around and stared. It was his phone.

Snatching it off the table, he glared at it, peeved at whoever was interrupting him and making him look stupid. Peeved at it because, damnit, he didn't have time for this because he wanted to get out of here and call Yuuta already!

Then he blinked at the display. _Yuu_.

He debated for a moment whether to answer it or not, but curiosity and want won out, and he quickly exited the club room.

He answered the phone as he shut the door behind him and leaned back against it.

"Yuuta."

(S)

Oshitari glanced at Mukahi, wondering if he'd seen it as well. Mukahi glanced back.

"You saw it, Yuushi?"

Oshitari smirked and pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose. Curiosity reignited, he gestured toward the door. "Shall we?"

Mukahi grinned.

(S)

"You're not at training?" Yuuta asked.

Atobe thought he sounded a little odd.

"Actually I am," he corrected. Then he paused.

He didn't want to give Yuuta the impression he didn't want to talk, so he added "but I'm free to talk to you."

"Oh," Yuuta breathed out.

"Aren't you training today?" Atobe asked, curious because he'd have thought Yuuta should be on court.

Hyoutei had hardly started.

Yuuta snorted. "No; we finished early because Mizuki was peeved about something."

"Ah."

Atobe wasn't about to say he was surprised. Mizuki had always struck him as a boy who needed to grow up a little more before he could manage a team without bringing his personal life into it.

"Anyway…" Yuuta began. He hesitated a little before blurting everything out.

"It's just that… We were going to do something this weekend, right? But Nee-san wants me to go home, so would it be okay if we met up for dinner on Saturday? I can't meet up Sunday because I promised I'd be at home then but… do you still want to… do something?"

Atobe considered his options quickly.

So Sunday was out of the question. He wasn't sure why they couldn't meet up Friday night, but if Yuuta was offering Saturday dinner…

"I was thinking we could go to a place near my house… Or if you want, we can go to a place near here and I'll go home afterwards," Yuuta continued. "I have to do something with Mizuki at lunchtime."

Atobe thought he sounded a little uncomfortable. Still analysing his options, he wondered if Fuji would be home. He wasn't particularly keen to see the boy, he couldn't really say he wanted to see Yuuta's sister either, and he hadn't even met Yuuta's parents yet. But he couldn't help but want to be…

A greater part of Yuuta's life.

More important to him, perhaps…

He wanted to be the person who was allowed in when no one else was. Not Fuji, and not Mizuki, and not anyone else.

He realised it was a big ask, but right now, it was what he wanted.

"Why don't I just come to your house, hm?"

He could hear Yuuta swallow on the other end of the phone, and for a moment, he thought the answer might be no.

"I…"

Atobe stayed quiet. He pressed his free hand back against the surface of the door, needing something to get rid of the slightly nervous energy in his fingers.

"Mm…" Yuuta said, sounding worried.

Atobe held his breath.

"Okay…"

Atobe breathed out.

"I mean, I'll ask my mother first, but I think it's okay," Yuuta clarified.

"Okay," Atobe said, not knowing what else to say.

What was it that commoners did in situations like this? Oh, that was right.

"I'll bring a cake," he said decisively.

There was silence on Yuuta's end of the phone again, but Atobe guessed he was probably grinning.

"Then, I'll call you later after I've asked my mother…"

Atobe relaxed a little against the door. "Then… I'll expect your call later."

(S)

Hiyoshi didn't think it was a good idea to be doing this. He didn't think Atobe was going to take it very well when he realised that all his regulars had had their ears pressed up against the door the whole time he'd been out of the room.

He didn't think he'd want to know they'd heard bits and pieces of the conversation. And he didn't think Atobe would like it much that Mukahi and Oshitari were whispering so excitedly.

But it didn't stop him from pressing his ear up against the door too.

When he'd protested at first, Mukahi had told him to shut up because he wasn't obliged to listen, and he could just go back to his little corner and sit in it if he wanted.

Besides, Atobe was answering his phone during training time, and that meant they were allowed to listen in.

Hiyoshi refused to go back to his 'little corner', as Mukahi put it.

Kabaji didn't say anything when they all plastered themselves next to each other against the door, but he didn't look happy either. So when Atobe finished his conversation and opened the door, he found a pile of boys sprawled in front of him on the floor.

Hiyoshi thought from the expression on his face, that he should have listened to Gakuto and sat in his little corner.

"I see you're all eager to start training," Atobe drawled, pushing his phone into his pocket. His eyes rested on Gakuto for a moment. "Well, I won't stand in your way then."

He pushed the door wide open and stepped back to allow them to step out.

"Thirty laps."

(S)

Atobe watched the regulars running. He stretched his arms above his head, and then pulled his right leg behind him, stretching out his muscles.

Today was a good day but if everything went his way, Saturday would be even better.

.tbc.


	4. Chapter 4

Archive: NO.

Reviews: Nice, but not obligatory. I do, however, appreciate them. :D Thank you to the people who have been kind enough to review so far.

**About Us**

Chapter 4

By Miki

"Yuuta?"

Yumiko didn't hesitate as she walked into her brother's room. He'd left the door open, so she assumed she was allowed in, and truthfully, she missed the days when he'd drop onto his bed after coming home from school. She used to poke her head in when she got home, and he'd often be asleep. Somehow, those days seemed a long time ago.

A lot of things had changed since then.

His scar had stayed the same shape, and he had kept the same haircut, but he wasn't as easily open with her or with Syuusuke… The way he looked at her had changed too…

He had used to look at her with wide, curious eyes. Now, more often than not, he narrowed them.

Yuuta looked up from his magazine as she walked in. "Nee-san."

"What are you doing?" She asked, though it was obvious enough.

He didn't get up from where he laid on his back, but managed a grunt.

Syuusuke was out of the house, and Yumiko was caught between her happiness at seeing Yuuta like this, and knowing that the only reason he looked so relaxed in his own house was because his brother was out of it.

"Do you mind if I sit down?" she questioned.

Yuuta grunted again, so Yumiko sighed a little and sat down at the edge of his bed, near his head. "What time did you tell Atobe to come?"

Yuuta tensed slightly, and Yumiko did well to keep a straight face. "Six," he answered quickly, staring at one spot in the magazine he held above his head.

"Oh? So early?"

Yuuta put down the magazine. "It isn't early," he retorted. "I… I have to introduce him to mum and dad before dinner."

"Is it necessary to be so formal?" Yumiko asked, knowing the exact reason behind Yuuta's nervousness.

She could see that familiar twitchiness of his fingers now, and she absentmindedly touched his hair.

"I like Atobe," Yuuta said suddenly, and Yumiko blinked. The statement was unexpectedly clear, and she looked down at Yuuta, curious as to what would prompt him to be so open with her for a change.

He swallowed, trying not to meet her eyes; trying to pretend it wasn't a weird thing to say. "I mean, he's kind of… a _friend_… So if he comes over again, then they'll know who he is properly, right?"

Yumiko duly noted Yuuta's awkward emphasis on the word 'friend'. She smiled at it and let her fingers run through his hair.

"Of course. Perhaps by then, the soup will be ready and we can make an early start."

"Early start?" Yuuta repeated. "Why?"

"Well, then you could squeeze in a movie afterwards," Yumiko suggested, keeping her tone carefully neutral so that Yuuta didn't think anything of it. She could see the way Yuuta was struggling to interpret her words, and didn't want to annoy him and lose her precious time with him.

"A-Ah, right…" he eventually stuttered out, turning his head to face the wall, away from her.

Her hand paused for a moment in its movement, and she wondered if she should take that as her cue to leave.

"Well, I should get back to the kitchen before we have to eat charcoal for dessert," she said, beginning to get up.

"Nee-san."

"Hm?"

She sat back down again.

"Do you…"

Yumiko waited for a moment, curious as to what Yuuta would say.

"Actually… it's nothing," Yuuta mumbled, closing his eyes. "What are we having for dessert?"

"Blueberry pie."

"Oh."

Yumiko patted her brother's hair once more and then walked toward the door.

"I forgot to tell you before…" Yuuta added, "Atobe's bringing a cake."

"Oh," Yumiko smiled. "How nice of him," she said, though she reflected with amusement on the fact that Syuusuke was going to miss out on what looked to be a funny evening. Then she hurried down the hallway and back to the kitchen. Charcoal really didn't taste good with whipped cream after all.

(S)

Yuuta sat on the edge of the sofa and scrunched his toes on the floor in front of him. It had been nearly ten minutes to six when he'd walked out from his room. Somehow he'd managed to misjudge the time, and now he was annoyed.

He didn't want to walk back to his room, just in case Atobe arrived soon, but he didn't like sitting here and waiting either. It would have been better if he'd hung around in his room until he heard the doorbell ring, at least. It wouldn't have been so weird then, and his mother wouldn't keep checking up on him like there was something strange about sitting on the sofa.

He pushed his hands flat under his thighs and hunched forward as he waited.

He hoped his sister wasn't too annoyed about the cake thing… She'd been in the kitchen for the past hour and a half, helping his mother and preparing the blueberry pie. Maybe he should have told Atobe not to bring anything…

He sighed and restlessly flopped backwards, pulling his hands out from underneath him and instead throwing his arms wide out along the top of the sofa.

At least he didn't have to worry about his brother.

And with that thought, Yuuta heard the doorbell and startled at the sound.

"Yuuta? Are you going to get that or should I?" his mother called out, and Yuuta jumped off the sofa quickly.

"I will," he called back, and found himself with his hand on the door before he'd even realised it. He didn't have any time to be surprised, however, as the doorbell rang again and he heard Yumiko talking to their mother. Her voice seemed to be coming closer, so Yuuta quickly opened the door.

And blinked.

(S)

Atobe peered out of the window, squinting to see the numbers on the houses as they passed. The car was going too fast though so he gave up quickly, telling himself he wasn't really anxious at all. Still, he glanced across at the bouquet of flowers he'd picked out and pulled them closer to him on the seat, fingering the cellophane and tissue paper wrapping. He played with the ribbon around the middle of the stems, and then looked out of the window again.

The houses around here were pretty small. He'd been here several times before, but the size of the houses still didn't fail to strike him with a sense of curiosity. How did people live in them? Didn't they feel claustrophobic? Cramped? Did they really have room to move inside?

Was this why suburbs had public parks in them? Because the gardens weren't even big enough to throw a stick in?

Atobe recalled the size of Yuuta's bedroom and almost shuddered. One hardly had enough space to breathe in there, and he imagined the other rooms of the house were no better either. For a moment, he almost felt curious to know what Fuji's room was like. Yuuta's was quite bare really, though he'd admit it was hard to fit in any more furniture given the size of the room.

Perhaps Fuji's was similar in size and layout. He'd heard once that Yuuta's brother collected cacti, and at the thought of multiple, unpleasantly spiky plants squeezed into a small room, Atobe cringed.

Then he absentmindedly fingered the ribbon on the flowers again, and looked down at them, forgetting about Fuji.

He wondered if it was too over the top to bring flowers as well as the cake…

With that thought, he swallowed nervously.

He'd asked Jirou what he thought, but Jirou hadn't said much other than to give a vague description of his mother's gift-giving habits, and, as Atobe had pointed out, Jirou's mother was most probably socialising with a different class of people and furthermore, Ore-sama was not a forty-year old woman and had no inclination to act like one.

Commoners really were confusing.

Atobe sighed and sunk down slightly in his seat. He wanted to give Yuuta's parents a good impression, but he really felt like his nerves were fraying at the edges.

He felt like he was out of his depth, and it wasn't a feeling he was used to. He'd always prided himself on his social skills.

His ability to converse with grownups about anything and everything had become an instinct over the years, as slipping into talks about the economy and politics became habit – his father's motto was that since it was inevitable he'd have to do it in the future, he should start now – but before now, he'd never felt quite so weird about sitting around a dinner table with a family…

But then, he hadn't ever really cared about anything like this before either.

(S)

Yuuta stared at the huge bouquet of flowers tucked in Atobe's arm.

He didn't have much of a clue about flowers, but the bunch looked… kind of flashy… and it smelt kind of strong.

The I-think-I've-just-accidentally-walked-in to-a-florist kind of strong.

"Yuuta," Atobe greeted, a slight smile on his face.

Yuuta blinked at the flowers, noticing they matched the colour of Atobe's tie… Why was Atobe wearing a tie? Did he normally wear ties to other people's houses? He was even wearing dress pants, Yuuta realised with surprise, eyes not knowing where to look. He'd hardly seen Atobe not wearing his school uniform before, and all of a sudden, he realised…

Of all the things he'd worried about, he'd worried about his clothes the least! And now he was standing here in front of Atobe wearing worn-out house slippers, cargo pants with an ink stain on the hem – Yanagisawa didn't mix well with paintbrushes and Yuuta had told him never to bother trying again – and a shirt which… well, the shirt was okay, but the slippers had frogs on them and the pants had a stain, and he felt like Atobe was staring at him strangely.

"Yuuta?" Atobe questioned, raising his eyebrow.

"Huh?" Yuuta looked at him, swallowing.

Maybe he could go and change before Atobe realised, he thought, half-worrying that he wouldn't get a chance to change and Atobe would be thinking weird thoughts in his head all night, and half-worrying that when he was worrying so much over his clothes, there was really something wrong with him.

"Are you okay?" Atobe asked, and Yuuta realised he was standing in the doorway and blocking it.

"Ah, yeah," he responded, distracted.

Well, it was possible Atobe didn't think much of his clothes anyway. He probably expected him to dress in 'common' clothing or –

"So… Are you going to let me in? Or is there some secret password I have to guess?" Atobe drawled.

Yuuta felt his face turning pink. "No, I… Don't be so dumb…" he muttered, scowling just a little as he tried not to look even stupider than he already did.

He stepped aside, and as he did so, he noticed Atobe's chauffeur standing awkwardly on the footpath, two boxes in his arms.

"Er… Hello," he greeted, a little startled and suddenly conscious of the fact that he had not the slightest clue what the man's name actually was.

Atobe did however, calling him impatiently and instructing him to put his boxes down just inside the house.

Then Atobe pushed the door shut and looked at Yuuta. "You look a bit funny," he commented.

"So do you," Yuuta scowled back, his embarrassment making him feel just a little cranky.

Atobe ignored Yuuta's retort and adjusted a strand of hair. "No, I mean, you look pale," he clarified, stepping closer and putting the back of his hand to Yuuta's forehead.

"I'm fine," Yuuta insisted, blushing even more as Atobe touched him.

His nose twitched a little as the scent of the flowers also got closer to him and he turned quickly.

"Anyway, my mum's in the kitchen."

"Hey," Atobe pulled him back.

"What?" Yuuta asked, sniffling a little.

Atobe's flowers were really doing weird things to him.

"Where's my greeting?" Atobe demanded, and Yuuta instantly recalled the last time Atobe had said something like that.

"You don't need one," he grumbled.

Where was Yumiko anyway? He'd been sure he'd heard her footsteps coming this direction and the longer she took to show up, the more nervous he felt.

He eyed the boxes the chauffeur had left on the floor, walked towards them and then glanced at Atobe. "Should I bring these in?" he questioned, curious as to what was inside.

Atobe didn't reply, and Yuuta glanced at him, taken aback to see him frowning. He hesitated.

"Jeez," he grumbled.

Then he marched the few steps back to him and gave him a quick kiss on the cheek.

It was fast enough that it was almost more like a peck than anything else; fast enough that Atobe had hardly blinked and Yuuta was already pulling away again –

But it wasn't quite fast enough that Atobe couldn't grab Yuuta's arm and hold him still.

Yuuta thought Atobe's face looked just as red as his felt, and wondered just a little miserably why Atobe chose such horrible places to want to do it. Didn't he worry about people catching them?

It wasn't that he didn't like it, but the feeling he felt was almost like exhilaration mixed with fear, and it made his chest feel so tight he felt like he might burst.

As Atobe's lips met his, he decided he'd think about it later.

Still, he really wished Atobe would –

"Atobe."

Yuuta's eyes flew open – when had he shut them? – and he pushed Atobe from him without a second thought.

"I was wondering what was taking so long," Yumiko smiled, smoothing down her apron.

"Nee-san…" Yuuta swallowed, lost for words.

There was no way his sister hadn't seen that. She'd have to be blind to have missed it, and Yumiko was nothing if not observant.

Yuuta squeezed his eyes shut for a moment, trying to get his panicked thoughts into order. He vaguely heard Atobe greeting her, but he wondered what she was thinking. Was she surprised? He'd said Atobe was just a friend, right?

What if she thought…

"I didn't realise you were so cultured these days, Yuuta."

Yuuta looked up at her at the mention of his name. He didn't understand what his sister was talking about, and didn't think he wanted to know. He hurriedly picked up the boxes on the floor, realising he had to make his escape now before Yumiko got too comfortable.

"Well, I'm going to introduce Atobe to Kaa-san…"

Yumiko smiled. "Of course."

Yuuta used his spare hand to tug lightly on Atobe's sleeve, yanking him along though he looked like he wanted to say something else to Yumiko. Whatever it was, he was probably better off not saying it anyway.

(S)

Yumiko watched Yuuta leading Atobe to the kitchen and couldn't help but want to smile about it. Perhaps she'd been a little hard on Atobe the last time he was here, she thought, but then, she wasn't willing to hand over her little brother to just anyone.

And certainly not anyone who wasn't willing to work for him. She wanted to know how far Atobe was willing to go, and she wanted to be sure he wasn't a person who would quit halfway there.

His reputation, of course, preceded him everywhere he went, and Yumiko had thought when she'd met him that most of what she'd heard had been true.

He was every bit as proud as Syuusuke had said, and it was funny to tease him, as she'd already learnt.

Still, she didn't think he'd back down from her challenge. At least, somewhere in her, she almost hoped he wouldn't.

Hearing her Yuuta sounding grouchy in the kitchen, she pulled out her hair tie and ran a hand through her hair. Then she walked into the room and leaned against the counter. If she wasn't wrong, it looked like her mother was already impressed with Atobe and he'd barely been in there a minute.

"You know, Okaa-san," she smiled, wanting to stir things up a little, "I don't know what Atobe's told you about himself, but he's probably being modest."

She noted the shocked look on Yuuta's face. They all knew that modesty was not exactly one of Atobe's more prominent character traits, if it was there at all.

"I think we should expect him to be a good influence on Yuuta from now on," she continued.

Atobe was looking at her, his mouth open slightly in surprise, and she wondered if she should tell him he looked like a guppy. Movement caught her eye and she noted Yuuta was picking off a piece of crust from her blueberry pie, obviously thinking no one was noticing.

"Atobe-kun's already taught Yuuta all about European greetings, haven't you?" she purred, keeping her eyes on Atobe's face. "They take a lot of practise to feel natural, don't they?"

Yuuta coughed then, and spluttered and choked.

Yumiko watched as Atobe's face turned red and he awkwardly patted Yutua's back. Her mother hurried to fill a glass with water.

It really was a shame Syuusuke wasn't here. She missed him when he wasn't around to appreciate her sense of humour, which, all too often, flew over other people's heads. On the bright side however, she now knew that her blueberry pie was a killer, and that the evening would be an interesting one.

She did so like it when entertainment like Atobe turned up on the doorstep, after all.

.tbc.


	5. Chapter 4 point 5

Notes: Don't be confused if you're wondering where chapter 5 went and why this chapter is here where it wasn't before. XD I updated last time in a rush since I've been busy lately, and I didn't realise I'd skipped a chapter :D;; This is chapter 4.5; Ootori and Shishido.

Reviews: Nice, but not obligatory. I do appreciate them and they remind me to update. XD Thank you to the people who have reviewed so far.

**About Us**

**4.5; About Sharing**

By Miki

Shishido didn't really get it.

He didn't really get a lot of things about Ootori.

Sometimes Ootori liked buying drinks on the way home from school, but then he'd take a single sip and decide he wasn't thirsty and give the rest to Shishido. Shishido didn't complain, because Ootori always bought the expensive ones which came in ten million flavours and all tasted like heaven; the ones he couldn't afford to buy himself. He suspected Ootori just wanted to test out all the flavours on the menu and hadn't found one he really liked yet.

Shishido liked them all.

Other times, Ootori would get this funny look on his face like he really wanted to say something, but he never did. Or sometimes he'd say something completely stupid and Shishido would wonder why he bothered opening his mouth only to say something about the weather, or about Atobe, or sometimes about other dumb things…

Today, the thing Shishido didn't get was why it took Ootori so damn long to get him a glass of lemonade from the kitchen.

He gripped his pencil a little harder and scratched a few more characters onto his piece of paper. Then, annoyed and impatient, he gave up on his homework and opened his bedroom door. He could hear voices from the kitchen; one was Ootori's and the other was his brother's.

He scowled a little and crept down the hallway.

"Hey, I really liked that one too!"

"No way! I took Shishido-san to see it and he hated it!"

"Really? Yeah, Ryou's got bad taste in movies, huh? He just likes the ones where they blow up stuff," Tooru said, leaning back in his chair a little.

"I noticed that a bit," Ootori laughed.

"Yeah, like when we were kids, we used to go to the cinema and I used to try to get into the R ones, you know? Ryou's boring though; he always wanted to get out after two minutes and go find the action movies."

Ootori's eyes were wide.

"You took Shishido-san to… to…"

"Porn?" Tooru laughed.

Shishido twitched from where he stood.

Ootori's lips made a kind of 'o' shape, but nothing came out, which just made Tooru laugh harder.

"I think maybe I kind of scared him though," he said, when he stopped.

Ootori smiled a little, and Shishido's heart started beating faster; seeing that smile… That one he sometimes had on his face right before he kissed him. His hand clutched at the doorframe a little harder as he tried to peek at the two boys.

"Why's that?" Ootori asked, when Tooru didn't elaborate.

"Eh, well, you know," Tooru said, looking awkward and rubbing at his neck. "He's never brought any girls home… Does he talk to them at school?"

Shishido grit his teeth a little. Trust his brother to bring up _that_ topic in front of Ootori.

(S)

Ootori swallowed quickly, surprised at the question. He hadn't seen it coming.

"Um… Shishido-san… He…"

He grinned like an idiot and ran his hand through his hair. "I don't know," he settled for answering, though he really did know the answer. "He's pretty popular though, you know…"

Shishido didn't hang out with the girls at school because he was always hanging out with him at lunch and after school, and sometimes before school as well. He didn't hang out with girls on the weekends either, because Ootori usually asked him to do something or go somewhere… It hadn't really crossed Ootori's mind that maybe he was monopolising all of Shishido's time.

He didn't really feel like smiling anymore, and Tooru wasn't really looking at him anyway, so he let his smile fall and glanced around the room.

"He had a girlfriend once when he was a kid," Tooru mused, feeling a need to fill in the silence.

He wasn't sure what it was about his brother's friend, Ootori, but he always gave him a kind of weird feeling, like he needed to be extra-nice to him all the time and look after him a bit. Otherwise Ootori had something of a tendency to become quiet, and once or twice, Tooru had seen his younger brother snap at him.

Tooru suspected he wouldn't last a second if Ootori ever gave him that dejected puppy-dog look.

It probably worked really well on girls too.

"Well, anyway," he smiled, "weren't you in the middle of getting something?"

Ootori's eyes widened and he pushed himself off the wall where he was leaning, standing up straight as though snapping to attention. "Ah, yes, of course! Shishido-san… I mean, I can't believe-" he blurted, flustered as he looked around as though his Senpai was going to walk in and catch him slacking off on the job.

Which he did.

"Choutarou!"

Tooru chuckled a little at his younger brother's entrance and didn't even bother pretending to bury his nose in his book.

Ootori Choutarou…

He'd been visiting more and more lately, so and it wasn't the first time Tooru had seen that look on his face, but it was definitely the first time that it had occurred to him… Ootori was kind of… cute.

(S)

Ootori turned around, looking every bit as guilty as Shishido had intended him to feel. He scrambled to the fridge.

"Shishido-san, I was just… Sorry, I kind of got carried away," he apologised, pulling out the bottle of lemonade and twitching his fingers as he tried to remember where the glasses were.

"Top cupboard on the right," Tooru offered, enjoying the show.

"Thanks," Ootori said, hurrying to get two glasses and fill them with lemonade. "Sorry, are you thirsty Shishido-san?"

Shishido crossed his arms and leaned against the wall where Ootori had been just a moment before.

"Why else would I tell you to get drinks?" he scowled, narrowing his eyes slightly.

"Give the guy a break, Ryou," Tooru said, eyes meeting his brother's. "He's not your _dog_, you know."

Shishido directed a glare at his brother; his words for a moment filling him with a sense of shame. "What are you doing here anyway?" he demanded, annoyed and directing his annoyance at his brother because if he'd known Tooru was in the house, he wouldn't have sent Ootori to get the drinks by himself.

"What?" Tooru scowled back, "I have to have a reason to be in my own house?"

"Um…" Ootori began.

"No, I'm saying, don't you have somewhere else to be?" Shishido questioned, not liking the feeling that his brother was going to corner him again. He hated losing to his brother, even more than he hated losing to Atobe or Oshitari or anyone else. Even if they were in the stupid kitchen and not on a tennis court.

"Um…" Ootori interrupted again, looking uncomfortable.

Tooru glanced at him and then glanced at the drinks on the counter. "The trays are over there," he said, waving a hand. "Ice cubes are in the freezer."

Ootori mumbled another 'thanks' and looked embarrassed as he tried to pretend he wasn't seeing Shishido and his brother bickering with each other.

Shishido glanced at his team mate's back, and then at his brother again. "Whatever," he grumbled, and shoved his hands into his pockets. "Hurry up with the drinks already, Choutarou."

"Shi-" Ootori began, but Shishido had already left the kitchen.

Tooru sighed at his brother's childishness, though he couldn't help but feel a little stupid and childish too when Ootori looked at him. What was it about Ootori that made him feel like that? Maybe Ryou felt the same way too, he mused.

It was kind of funny when he thought about it, because he wasn't sure which of the boys was more of a sucker.

(S)

Ootori shuffled back into Shishido's room and lowered himself to his knees, sliding the tray onto the table. He had to push his books aside to make space.

"You know how long that took?" Shishido asked.

Ootori bowed his head slightly. "Sorry."

Shishido rolled his eyes and would have told him that 'sorry' was not the answer to the question, but Ootori was already looking dejected so he let it slide.

"Do you really not like it when I talk to your brother?" Ootori asked, quietly because he'd left the door open.

Shishido stood up. Ootori looked up at him for a moment. He wished he could take that question back.

Shishido walked to the door and closed it. Then he walked back over to the table and sat down again.

"Where'd the biscuits come from?" he asked, picking up the packet on the tray and finding the red tab to pull to open it.

"Shi- I mean, your brother told me you liked them," Ootori replied, shifting slightly, moving one leg to sit on top of it.

Then he realised how Shishido was sitting with his shoulders slumped, and felt kind of tall. He shifted again and sat still, feeling like he was making too much noise in the quiet room.

Shishido's eyes met Ootori's. His cheeks were a bit pink. "I just like the flavour," he said, a little defensively. "Not the other stuff."

It took Ootori a moment to realise that when Shishido said 'stuff', he meant the pink packaging and the fact that both sides of each biscuit were shaped like Hello Kitty's face. He took one when Shishido offered the packet, and decided that biting into the biscuit was a good excuse not to say anything right now.

Ootori would never have called himself a fan of things like this. He sometimes noticed them in the shops, or at the Candy Land, where he liked to buy snacks, but for the most part, he stayed away from biscuits and cookies.

Chewing on the crumbly mess of a biscuit, he couldn't really say it was anything spectacular, though the strawberry filling did taste like something you could get addicted to pretty quickly.

Shishido was looking at him, he realised, so Ootori looked back at him.

"You're not allowed to mention this, you know," Shishido scowled, as if he thought Ootori was going to ring up Gakuto and Oshitari and Hiyoshi and Jirou to tell them all that Shishido Ryou liked eating biscuits with Hello Kitty faces on them and pink, strawberry-flavour fillings.

Seeing the blush on Shishido's face, Ootori couldn't help the tightness in his chest; the slightly squeezing, slightly painful feeling that made his heart beat faster and his fingers feel tingly.

"I wouldn't," he answered, and hurriedly ate the rest of his biscuit.

Shishido picked up his pencil and grunted. He figured if they got back to their homework again, Ootori would forget about the biscuits, though that didn't mean he was letting his brother off the hook for giving them to Ootori. Tooru probably just wanted to make him look stupid or something.

"Shishido-senpai?"

"Huh?"

Shishido looked up from his book and jerked in surprise, instinctively shuffling back along the floor. When did Ootori get so close?

"I'm sorry," Ootori apologised, and Shishido frowned.

"What are you apologising for?"

Ootori swallowed and looked at him earnestly. "I just wanted to be nice to your brother; that was all."

Shishido grunted and played with the end of his pencil. He didn't want to let Ootori off easily, even if… Well, it wasn't like talking to his brother was a crime, but Shishido just didn't _like_ it. He really hated it when Ootori paid attention to other people, even if he knew it couldn't be helped. But it wasn't as though he had to do it _right under_ his nose.

They couldn't be 'together together', as Ootori put it, at club activities, because things were still a secret from everyone else. Neither of them really said it, but they both felt it was better if things stayed that way too. That only left the weekends.

Couldn't Ootori just think about _him_ when they were together?

Sometimes Shishido felt bad always being with Ootori, because he kept wondering if there were other people Ootori wanted to spend time with, but then that thought always killed off any feelings of consideration he might have held, and he ended up monopolising all Ootori's time anyway.

He didn't realise he had completely zoned out of the conversation until Ootori put his hand on his thigh and leaned in again.

"Shishido-san, are you okay?"

"Yeah," Shishido grunted, "but I wasn't listening," he added, just in case Ootori had been saying something important.

"I didn't say anything," Ootori explained.

He didn't move his hand.

"Why do you like my brother anyway?" Shishido grumbled.

Ootori looked pink in the face. "Because," he said, and Shishido deliberately didn't look at him, waiting for a better answer.

"I mean, he's kind of like you," Ootori said, feeling like he was talking too loudly again. He hesitated in explaining the other thoughts that were running through his mind then, just in case Shishido got grouchy at him for thinking such dumb thoughts.

"Does it really bother you?" he questioned softly, a little worriedly.

Shishido shrugged. It did, and there were a lot of things he wanted to say to Ootori about it.

The sound of Ootori's voice speaking so softly stopped him though, so he settled for a half-arsed explanation, because he felt like he owed Ootori at least that for getting him all worried and upset.

"I just… I wanted you to pay attention to me instead," he huffed, trying to sound not quite so stupid as he thought he did.

Ootori wrapped his arms around him easily. He shuffled his knees a little, so they weren't so far apart and so he could put his head against Shishido's shoulder.

"Sorry," he apologised again.

Shishido slumped into his embrace, grumbling under his breath slightly. Trust Ootori to be so annoyingly cute, he thought.

"Hey… Choutarou…"

"Yes?"

Shishido shivered slightly.

Ootori had turned his head so his mouth was next to Shishido's neck.

It felt kind of funny and ticklish.

"You don't have to spend so much time over here, you know."

Ootori tensed a little.

Shishido pretended not to notice it, and continued on. If he didn't say it now, he probably wouldn't say it at all. "It's not like I don't like spending time with you, but shouldn't you do stuff with your sister sometimes too?"

"No!" Ootori yelled, a little loudly. He lifted his head from Shishido's shoulder and held the boy's shoulders in his hands tightly, looking him straight in the eyes.

Shishido blinked.

"I like being with you, Shishido-san," Ootori insisted; voice and words painfully honest. "I… Does it annoy you?"

Shishido shook his head quickly.

Ootori breathed out; relieved. Then he smiled awkwardly, shyly.

"Sorry, I just get so worked up whenever it's you… I don't want to be a bother to you, so I… Tell me if I'm crowding you, Shishido-san. You're probably-"

"You can stop apologising," Shishido scowled.

"So-"

"Choutarou," Shishido said, cutting him off.

"Yes?"

Ootori cringed at the tone of his Senpai's voice.

Shishido sighed dramatically and put his hands to Ootori's face, palms of his hands against Ootori's jaw. He leaned forward until their foreheads touched. "Stop acting so weird."

"But I-"

"You can tell me off sometimes, you know… I mean… Cause sometimes I know I'm stupid about this sort of stuff," Shishido swallowed, not quite sure if his words were coming out the way he wanted them to.

He was so bad at all this romantic stuff, even when he tried. So he took a breath and closed his eyes. "I like you… so… I just get jealous too much, and I'm sorry."

Shishido felt Ootori shift. Their lips pressed together tentatively.

"Me too," Ootori said, and Shishido opened his eyes.

"I like you too," Ootori smiled.

It felt so good to say the words to Shishido, so he repeated them again. "I really like you… so much… Shishido-san… And I don't care if you get jealous…"

He pulled Shishido against him again, content to hold him. "Actually I… That's not really what I mean," he mumbled, "I mean… because it makes me kind of happy that you'd get jealous… so I do care…"

Ootori's arms tightened around Shishido, and Shishido realised he really had been silly to want to punish Ootori for his own, little insecurities. There were so many better things they could do when they were together.

Ootori was still mumbling a sort of confusing explanation, and Shishido didn't really get it.

But that was okay.

He liked Ootori.

He liked everything about him.

There was a clack, and all of a sudden the door opened. Shishido and Ootori jumped apart, and Shishido fell backwards, awkwardly staring at the doorway as his heart thumped in his chest.

"What are you doing?" Tooru asked, a look of amusement on his face.

"What are _you_ doing?" Shishido growled back.

Stupid brother. Ruined a perfectly good moment.

"I wanted to show Ootori something," Tooru said, and leaned against the doorway.

"Hey, Ootori, you know this movie right?" he said, and waved a DVD in his hand.

Ootori grinned. "You have that?" he asked, getting up and walking over. "That's so cool! I mean, I saw it at the movies twice but it's not-"

He froze as Shishido put his hand on his shoulder.

Tooru raised an eyebrow. He would have said something too, except that Shishido walked over to him then and glared.

"Choutarou's _my_ guest," he said; eyes narrowed. "Go get your own if you want someone to bug."

Then he shut the door in his brother's face, and there was a thump from the other side of the doorway as Tooru fell onto the floor.

Shishido turned around and stared at Ootori. "Where were we, Choutarou?" he asked.

Ootori blushed ten shades of red, but he didn't protest at all about continuing what they'd started before the interruption.

Shishido kissed him, and Ootori's mouth tasted like vanilla biscuit and strawberries.

He knew Ootori liked him.

But that didn't mean he couldn't get jealous every so often, right?

He still didn't entirely get it – this sort of relationship-thing – but he knew that unlike everything and everyone else in his life, Ootori wasn't someone he wanted to share.

.tbc.


	6. Chapter 5

Archive: NO

Notes: Sorry for any confusion caused by the numbering of the chapters XD This is chapter 5 but I should have posted chapter 4.5 last time and didn't realise I'd skipped it. :D; So click backwards a chapter for the newer chapter which is Ootori and Shishido. This is chapter 5 so now everything is in the right order! Enjoy:D

Reviews: Appreciated. :D I like them and they remind me to update. Thank you to the people who have reviewed so far.

**About Us**

Chapter 5

By Miki

"It really is a shame Syuusuke can't be here," Yumiko sighed.

Yuuta, barely over the piece of pie crust he'd nearly inhaled before, managed to give his sister a sort-of-glare in response. Why did she have to go and bring up their brother? It wasn't like Atobe had come over to see _him_, was it?

Yuuta's glare wavered in the face of her smile though, and he wasn't sure it was a very scary look; nothing like the glares he gave to the stupid first years when they accidentally hit balls into his court, and nothing like what he directed at Yanagisawa whenever he was really driving Yuuta insane with his 'da ne' and his incessant questions.

"Fuji's not here?" Atobe asked, seeming to snap out of whatever it was that had kept his mouth shut until now.

Yuuta tensed a little. Was it just him, or did Atobe actually sound disappointed? He snuck a sideways glance at Atobe, but it was pretty hard to tell from his face what he was actually thinking.

Atobe's hand, still resting a little awkwardly on his back, shifted a little.

He hadn't moved it even after Yuuta had stopped coughing, but it made Yuuta feel weird, and kind of conscious about the fact that Atobe suddenly looked weird about it too, like he'd wanted to take his hand away but hadn't, and now couldn't, because it would look doubly weird as having had it there in the first place.

Yoshiko gave a slight smile in response to Atobe's question, and Yumiko looked a little more surprised than Yuuta thought she should.

He couldn't help but feel a little suspicious about it.

"Syuusuke went to stay the night at Kikumaru-kun's place," Yuuta's mother explained. "He said Kikumaru-kun invited him before he knew Yuuta meant to come home for the weekend, so he was a little annoyed about it."

"Ah," Atobe said, and Yuuta guessed from the way Atobe frowned slightly that he wanted to ask more but was keeping himself in check.

Yumiko's eyes twinkled.

Yuuta was sure that now the introductions were complete, they should escape somewhere his sister wasn't.

"I'm sure he'll be sorry he missed you," Yumiko smiled, as though she guessed Yuuta was starting to think of leaving. "He was just saying the other day that it would be nice see Atobe because he's done so much for you lately, Yuuta. Syuusuke wanted to pay him back for it."

Yuuta swallowed, uncomfortable with where his sister was heading. Where his brother was concerned, payback most certainly did not consist of nice friendly dinners and bunches of flowers, and he'd felt a lot better about having Atobe to dinner when he'd found out that his brother had already told Kikumaru Eiji he'd stay over for the night.

Atobe gave a flick of his hair, his hand sliding a little down Yuuta's back before he removed it entirely. "Well, he should be sorry," he stated, and Yuuta watched as Yumiko's lips curved with an amused smile.

He wondered if she thought this was fun.

_He_ didn't think it was fun.

"It isn't every day that Ore-"

Yuuta blinked as Atobe cut himself off, suddenly stopping speaking before he finished the sentence. "Ato-" he looked sideways.

"I mean, he's missing out on a good cake," Atobe corrected, looking – and sounding – incredibly awkward.

Yoshiko looked a little lost at the sudden change in Atobe's demeanour, and she smiled at him. "That's very true, though I'm sure we can save him a slice for tomorrow when he gets home."

Yuuta noted that his mother was using her 'encouraging' smile; the one she used to use on him whenever Syuusuke beat him at something. Like tennis. Or board games. Or card games. Or anything, really.

At that thought, he felt himself frowning again, and hurried to change his train of thought. He didn't quite know why, but he suddenly felt really conscious of frowning in front of Atobe. It wasn't like Atobe hadn't been the subject of his anger before, but Yuuta just…

He just wasn't quite sure what he and Atobe were doing yet, and he felt like Yumiko just knew which buttons to press to really rub him the wrong way, and he didn't want to act like this around Atobe because…

Aniki never frowned around people, did he?

Of course, Yuuta knew he wasn't his brother, or even his sister. But he felt like he wanted to make a conscious effort just not to be so –

"Yuuta?"

His mother's voice interrupted him. "Huh?" he looked at her, feeling like he wasn't quite sure what to do with himself under her stare.

She frowned a little at his response, looking sorely tempted to tell him off for it, but then she seemed to change her mind, and instead smiled.

"I think dinner will be another few minutes, so do you want to take Atobe to your room?" she said, in that way that Yuuta realised wasn't actually a question or suggestion, but was more of an order. "Yumiko and I will set the table today," she explained, when he didn't move.

Yuuta took her words to mean he didn't have to struggle with the plates and bowls and chopsticks and only hesitated for a moment before grunting a bit and turning on his heel.

"Come on, Atobe" he said to Atobe, and didn't bother waiting as Atobe excused himself a little more politely from the kitchen.

(S)

Yuuta fiddled with the hem of his shirt.

They'd only been sitting at the table for about ten minutes, but he was already feeling like they should hurry up and finish eating so he and Atobe could get away. He was sure Yumiko was going to say something; he didn't know what, but he was sure she wouldn't be able to help herself. It made him feel nervous, even though Syuusuke wasn't here, and even though his dad wouldn't be at home for another hour yet.

He hadn't gotten a chance to change his clothes either, and Atobe had definitely noticed the stain before, though he hadn't said anything… Which had made Yuuta feel relieved and even more nervous at the same time.

His mum, too, kept looking at Atobe like he was fascinating or something and it was creeping Yuuta out.

"So how do you actually know each other?" Yoshiko asked, smiling and looking between Yuuta and Atobe.

Yuuta swallowed a piece of fish and glanced sideways at Atobe.

They were sitting next to each other – Atobe on Yuuta's left – and facing Yumiko and his mum, and Yuuta felt like had Yumiko had her way, she'd have had them isolated and would have been cross examining them both by now.

As it was, his mum just kept asking weird questions that he didn't really feel like answering. She hadn't said it, but he suspected it was because she thought there was something weird about someone like Atobe wanting to hang out with someone like Yuuta.

Atobe currently looked ten times more mature than Yuuta had ever looked, and the way he handled everything with grace wasn't doing anything to make Yuuta feel any better about having dropped food on the floor already.

He shrugged in response to his mother's question, and didn't say anything, stabbing his chopsticks into his fish again.

The fish wasn't very thick though, so it wasn't a satisfying feeling to stab his chopsticks in and have them hit the plate so soon.

"We bumped into each other at a café," Atobe said carefully. "I already knew Fuji… through tennis," he added as an afterthought, and glanced sideways at Yuuta.

Then he picked up his cup of green tea and took a sip.

"Yes, I knew you knew Syuusuke," Yumiko smiled. "Which café?"

"Ah, the little French one near the Adidas store. It's not that far from St Rudolph," Atobe answered. "They have a green tea crème brulee there that I'm somewhat fond of."

"Green tea crème brulee?" Yoshiko repeated, looking amused. "I wonder what it tastes like."

"Green tea, obviously," Yuuta muttered under his breath, feeling a little stressed and more than happy to direct his annoyance at his mother. He stabbed his fish again. Yoshiko sent him a scolding look but didn't say anything.

Yumiko simply laughed. "You don't need to kill the fish, Yuuta," she said, quirking the corners of her lips in amusement. "It's already dead."

Yuuta scowled at her and she smiled back at him.

"I know," he snapped, "I wouldn't eat it if it weren't."

He stuffed a piece into his mouth as though to make his point.

Out of the corner of his eye, he saw Atobe smile for a moment. He paused his scowling and tried to look at Atobe without looking like that was what he was doing.

Atobe glanced back at him, and Yuuta's eyes were immediately drawn to his lips.

Atobe parted them for a moment and Yuuta could have sworn he was about to say his name, but then Yumiko interrupted and Yuuta turned his head quickly back to stare at his plate as he swallowed his fish.

"No, I'm sure you wouldn't," Yumiko conceded, belatedly replying to Yuuta's comment.

"You always have been very careful about what you put in your mouth, haven't you?"

She glanced at Atobe for a moment as she spoke, and Yuuta caught the movement and blinked; feeling his chest tight with worry.

"What's that supposed to mean?" he questioned, fidgeting and running his finger around the outside of his cup of tea.

Yumiko smiled. "I just meant that it must be a side effect of having Syuusuke for a brother," she laughed.

Yuuta frowned at her.

Yumiko never said exactly what she meant, and from the way she was smiling, he was pretty sure she could see he knew exactly what she was getting at.

"Ever since that time he fed you wasabi ice cream, you've always wanted to know exactly what anything was before you tasted it," she said; her words still dancing too dangerously close to clarity for Yuuta's liking.

"He said it was pistachio," Yuuta said, deciding not to let her get the better of him.

"But you don't like pistachio anyway," Yumiko pointed out.

"You don't need to remind me," Yuuta grumbled.

"I'm sure Atobe's no different," Yumiko continued stubbornly.

"I don't have a problem with pistachio," Atobe frowned.

"No," Yumiko laughed, glancing at her mother.

Yoshiko was lost though, and merely gave Yumiko a befuddled looking smile in return.

"Nevermind," Yumiko smiled, taking a long sip of her tea.

Yuuta had half an idea where she'd been going, and was glad she'd stopped before she'd spelt everything out in front of his mum. It was true she didn't really have his siblings' senses of humour, but she wasn't stupid. Nee-san didn't need to toe the line like that just to tease him.

(S)

Yumiko closed her eyes for a moment as she held her cup between the palms of her hands. As she'd thought, it was a little dull without Syuusuke here to appreciate her humour. On top of that, their father had rung to tell them he'd been delayed with a work function, so she felt a little as though Atobe had been let off too easily.

She narrowed her eyes at him over the top of her cup; not because she meant to intimidate him. It was more of a habit she'd learnt, perhaps from Syuusuke when they were children. Perhaps from their father.

Atobe noticed her gaze faster than she'd expected him to, since he had always struck her as an incredibly self-absorbed person. Apparently he wasn't quite so self-absorbed though, that he didn't notice people around him.

He looked at her for a moment, and Yumiko saw the movement of his right arm at the same time as she saw the surprised look on Yuuta's face.

Yuuta's face flushed a dull pink, and he hurriedly brought his hand up to take a sip of his tea.

Yumiko noted that it was his right hand that held his cup and his left which stayed under the table.

Likewise, Atobe picked up his cup with his left hand, and took a slow sip, looking unhurried.

He smiled at her.

"Yuuta mentioned that you like cakes, Fuji-san," he said, breaking the silence.

Yumiko was taken aback for a moment.

"I… do," she answered carefully, trying not to look as though she'd noticed anything odd.

She was starting to think that Atobe was much more perceptive than she'd previously given him credit for.

"Yumiko's always liked desserts, haven't you?" Yoshiko interrupted, momentarily breaking the tension between the Yumiko and Atobe.

Yumiko could still feel Yuuta looking at her slightly suspiciously, and she leaned back a little in her chair. "Of course. The more the merrier," she smiled, thinking of the fact that they'd have both cake and pie for dessert. Then she glanced at the gap between Yuuta and Atobe's chairs and took another long sip of her tea. She'd thought she was ready for tonight, but without Syuusuke here with her, she felt a little lost.

Yuuta was growing up, and he was growing up and growing into a life which perhaps wouldn't be as picture perfect as Yumiko had imagined it would be. It wasn't that she wanted to steer her brothers in any direction, or that she wanted to limit them to walking the same paths their parents had walked, but somehow…

The thought that he'd love someone who was… of the same gender… hadn't occurred to her.

She wasn't angry or upset about it at all; that wasn't what bothered her. What bothered her was the thought that ever since she and Syuusuke had been young, they had always protected Yuuta as though he were somehow less capable of defending himself than they had been.

And now, she realised, she couldn't really continue to protect him.

She had realised it when he transferred to St Rudolph and left Seigaku behind, but now, as she watched Atobe and realised that he was more confident and more demanding, less yielding and perhaps less patient than Yuuta, she couldn't help but wonder if Yuuta might just grow up a little faster than she'd wanted him to.

Being with Atobe, he might just have to.

Certainly, society was less than forgiving of anyone who didn't walk a straight and narrow path.

She couldn't help but wonder if the fact that it was Atobe would make it easier or harder on Yuuta, and she frowned.

"Yumiko?"

"Huh?" she looked up at the sound of her mother's voice, and realised she'd slipped into her own thoughts.

"Ah, sorry," she apologised quickly, glancing at the empty plates on the table and realising that her mother probably wanted her to help clear the table.

She tried not to meet Atobe's gaze as she picked up the plates and the two boys stood up and stretched.

"Fuji-san."

She turned around as she was about to leave the room.

"Atobe-kun?" she questioned, balancing dishes in both her hands.

He was looking at her intently.

"If you're near St Rudolph anytime soon, it would be nice if you could join Yuuta and I and try out the crème brulee at 'Jacques'."

Yumiko blinked at the invitation; almost surprised Atobe could ask her so easily. She realised she was supposed to give him some sort of answer, so she gave him half a smile. "We'll see," she said as she walked to the kitchen.

Her mother fumbled a little with the fridge door as she turned around at the sound of someone entering.

"Yumiko? What are you doing?" she questioned, and hurriedly took the plates from Yumiko's right hand.

"Are you okay? You look a little sick," Yoshiko observed, putting the dishes into the sink and holding the back of her hand to Yumiko's forehead.

Yumiko gently removed her mother's hand, shook her head and smiled.

"No, I'm just a little tired…" she lied.

She pulled a clean glass from the cupboard and filled it with water. As she sipped it and watched her mother piling the dishes in the sink, she glanced over at the clock.

Why was it that it felt like it was just a few days ago that Yuuta and Syuusuke used to run around on the courts together; happy when they hit balls within the lines and determined when they hit them out?

She wondered if she would take up Atobe's offer.

And then she heard a snort followed by a laugh.

It was Yuuta, laughing at something Atobe had said. She could hear the other boy's murmurs, but she couldn't quite work out what he was saying. Perhaps it didn't matter what he said anyway.

The fact that he could make Yuuta laugh had caught Yumiko's attention, and she drunk the last of her glass of water before adding the glass to the growing pile of dishes to be washed.

Then she rolled her shoulders a little, stretching as she walked back out to the table where Atobe and Yuuta were still sitting, albeit somewhat more sloppily than they'd sat during the meal.

"Actually I'd prefer not to," Atobe was saying; his tone somewhat dry. "I've never been partial to feral birds and I never will be."

Yuuta gave him a look, pursing his lips slightly.

"Why?"

Atobe flicked his hair.

"Where's no '_why_', Yuuta," he admonished, "it's a matter of personal taste."

Yuuta raised an eyebrow.

"I'm pretty sure I said that to you before you shoved that snail in my mouth, right?"

Yumiko paused in her steps just before she reached the table, and watched as Atobe's serious expression turned into one of exasperation.

"Besides, what's so wrong with turkey?" Yuuta questioned, noticing Yumiko standing in the room. His cheeks flushed pink and he turned back to Atobe.

Atobe noticed Yumiko too, and promptly clasped his cup again when she took her seat opposite Yuuta.

"I don't like it," was his reply.

Yuuta grunted and turned to face Yumiko again. Yumiko jolted a little, and was about to speak again when Atobe gave a decidedly resigned sigh.

"Fine," he conceded. "But next time we're going back to the usual place," he huffed slightly, looking childish for a moment.

"I still think your tastes are rather odd," he grumbled a little.

"Tastes in what?" Yuuta grumbled.

"Everything," was Atobe's answer, though Yumiko thought he didn't really look as though he meant it.

"Everything, Atobe?" she teased, feeling much more like herself again.

"I'd have said Yuuta's taste is…" she began, and hesitated, glancing at her brother.

He was looking at her curiously, as though not sure whether he'd like what she was about to say.

"I don't think there's anything wrong with Yuuta's taste," she corrected, and smiled at him.

Seeing the slightly befuddled looks on both boys' faces, she once again lamented the fact that Syuusuke wasn't here, although she imagined he'd have said Yuuta's taste could have done with some improvements.

Atobe might not have been exactly the person she'd envisaged Yuuta might one day date, if she'd ever really thought about it at all… But they were Yuuta's choices to make, weren't they?

And as Yumiko watched the slight quirk at the sides of Yuuta's mouth, and the raised eyebrow that followed, she thought he wasn't doing such a bad job after all.

.tbc.


	7. Chapter 6

Archive: NO.

Reviews: Appreciated. :D I like them and they remind me to update. Thank you to the people who have reviewed so far.

**About Us**

Chapter 6

By Miki

"This is lovely tea, Atobe," Yoshiko smiled, taking a sip from her cup. 

Yuuta fiddled with a button. They'd survived dessert – both rounds of it – and now they were sitting while they finished off the last of their tea.

Atobe nodded. "It is, isn't it? Mother usually has it imported from England since she's rather fond of English style blends."

Yumiko tilted her head slightly. "Is there a difference?"

Atobe considered for a moment before giving a nod. "Personal taste, I suppose."

Yuuta twitched.

"Personal taste," Yumiko repeated."Funny how some things work for some people and not for others," she commented and gave Atobe a knowing smile.

Atobe at least had the decency to look a little embarrassed.

(S)

Atobe stopped, confused, when Yuuta walked towards the television and not towards the front door. "I thought you said we were going to watch a movie," he said, flicking his watch on his wrist and checking the time.

Yuuta frowned a little. "I did."

Atobe glanced at the coffee table at the boxes sitting on it and then watched as Yuuta picked them up, turning them over in his hands. It occurred to him then that Yuuta subscribed to the rather peasant-like notion that a movie was the same whether viewed in a cinema or viewed on a tiny excuse of a television, and he swallowed.

"You can't think Ore-sama's going to watch a movie on that, can you?" he questioned. He walked back over to Yuuta and pulled the boxes from his hands, glancing at the titles and sniffing in disdain.

"Why not?" Yuuta retorted, snatching back the boxes again and trying to read the blurbs on the backs.

Atobe wrinkled up his nose and put his hands on his hips, feeling a need to assert the superiority of his own, informed, opinion.

"Because," he said, "Ore-sama's eyes are sensitive."

Yuuta gave him a disbelieving look. "You can go home if you want," he grunted, and gave Atobe a look over his shoulder as he stepped toward the television.

Atobe huffed a little, feeling indignant. That wasn't the response he had wanted, or expected, and it annoyed him a little to think Yuuta could be so dismissive.

Were Yuuta a guest in his own home, Atobe would never have considered making _him_ squint and hurt his eyes trying to stare at some tiny box. Peering around the room, he noticed there were at least speakers, which seemed to imply the existence of a semi-decent sound system.

The sofa, he knew, was comfortable enough, though he personally preferred something designed and handmade to order, and he thought it highly possible that sitting on this one for too long might produce back spasms and aches in funny places.

It could have been worse though. It could have been _Ikea_ from a box, he thought, and nearly shuddered.

"Oh, you're still here," Yuuta said, and Atobe stared at him.

"Of course I'm still here," he retorted, and couldn't help the childish tone that seemed to creep into his voice. He sat down quickly, and crossed his arms, daring Yuuta to say anything more on the subject. Yuuta's lips turned up a little at the edges, and for one second, Atobe thought he might just be _smirking_. Then he turned back to fiddling with the DVD player, and a moment later had dropped down onto the sofa.

"You want popcorn?" he asked.

"No," Atobe answered quickly.

"Oh."

Atobe glanced at Yuuta's left hand next to his right one.

"Chocolate?"

"Not particularly."

"Fruit?"

Atobe raised an eyebrow.

"Don't tell me you're still hungry."

Yuuta shrugged.

He wasn't, but that didn't mean he couldn't eat.

Yuuta wasn't sure when, but some time between discovering that Mizuki had an unnatural fondness for going through other people's clothes and wardrobes, and Mizuki declaring himself Yuuta's personal alarm clock, Yuuta had also discovered that if he left lollies or chocolates untouched in his room anywhere, they disappeared.

Syuusuke was always telling him that eating so much sugar couldn't be good for him, but Yuuta couldn't help going straight for the cupboard or the fridge the minute he got in the door. Since he didn't get that much sugar on the weekdays, he figured he could make up for it on the weekends.

He thought of the tubs of custard in the fridge and of the leftover pie and leftover blackforest cake as he fiddled with the remote, trying to remember which buttons to press to change the audio setup.

Atobe noticed Yuuta looked preoccupied. He eyed Yuuta's hand. Would Yuuta be annoyed at him if he wanted to hold hands? He probably would be, Atobe thought, and leaned back, pushing his hand half into his pocket to remind himself not to do anything.

He hadn't seen Yuuta's sister since she'd suggested they watch a movie, and had gone off upstairs to her room, but he didn't think she'd let him off if she caught him doing anything with Yuuta. He half-suspected she was spying on them somewhere.

Yuuta's voice interrupted Atobe's thoughts, as he got up off the sofa.

"I'll be back," he said, heading towards the kitchen.

Atobe wriggled his fingers further into his pants pocket and tilted his head back to look up at the ceiling. For a moment, he closed his eyes and simply listened to the sound of the DVD menu playing on repeat. Did he even know what they were watching? Yuuta hadn't asked him, had he?

"Are you asleep?"

Atobe opened his eyes. Yuuta plonked back down onto the sofa, one leg tucked under him and the other swinging over the side of the sofa. He finally pressed the play button, and looked at Atobe.

"Sure you don't want any?" he asked, gesturing to his large slice of blackforest cake.

Atobe shook his head.

Yuuta shrugged, and stuck his fork in. "I really like it, you know…"

It had never crossed Atobe's mind that Yuuta wouldn't like something he had chosen with the other boy in mind, but it still felt good to hear it straight from Yuuta's mouth. He felt surprised for a moment; maybe more surprised at himself than at Yuuta, because sometimes the things Yuuta said so nonchalantly were the things that made Atobe feel warm and embarrassed all over again.

(S)

Mukahi flicked a ball of paper at the wall.

"He's not answering," he complained, rolling over onto his back.

Oshitari adjusted his glasses and looked down at his friend where he was rolling about on the floor. He preferred to stay up on the bed since he suspected Mukahi's bedroom floor was dirtier than it looked.

"Maybe he's busy," he suggested, trying to discourage Mukahi from getting more ideas.

"Since when is Atobe ever too busy to pick up his phone?" Mukahi huffed. "I mean, he does _stuff_, but he usually picks up after a while, doesn't he?"

"Here, you can try from my number," Oshitari said and pulled out his mobile and tossed it down at Mukahi.

"I bet he's with his girlfriend," Mukahi said.

Oshitari resisted the urge to bang his head on the wall. Or better yet, bang Mukahi's head on the wall. There he was again with all that silliness about Atobe and his girlfriend when every time they thought they were getting a lead, they were getting nowhere.

"Don't you think it's kind of suspicious though, Yuushi? I mean, wouldn't you have thought Atobe would have at least shown her to us by now?"

Oshitari ignored Mukahi and tried to concentrate his attention on his book. He didn't know why he ever brought books to Mukahi's house and thought he'd get past the first page, because he almost never did.

A moment later, something hit him on the head and he sighed, placing his book down on the bed and staring at the scrunched up piece of paper now in his lap.

"I was saying," Mukahi said, somewhat petulantly, "I think maybe there's something funny about her, like maybe she's an older woman or something."

"You think Atobe has an older woman fetish?" Oshitari smirked, trying to imagine anyone older liking a middle school student enough to date him.

"Like how old?" he questioned, finding amusement in Mukahi's ability to imagine these impossible things.

"Like…" Mukahi paused, thinking.

"Like maybe university age, don't you think?"

"She'd have to be stupid," Oshitari laughed.

Mukahi shot him an annoyed look, but a moment later, perked up.

"Hey, he picked up!"

(S)

Yuuta fiddled for a moment after he'd finished his cake and pushed the plate onto the coffee table. He curled his toes and stretched his arms and fidgeted some more. Atobe managed to make sitting on the sofa look good, he realised.

He wondered if he should sit like Atobe too; all prim and proper, but then he realised he probably wouldn't be able to look like Atobe if he sat like that anyway, so he abandoned the idea. He wondered if Atobe felt weird wearing a tie in the house. Yuuta didn't even own a tie other than his school one, and he couldn't really see why anyone would want to be practically strangled all evening, just for the sake of looking good. But then, Atobe was Atobe, wasn't he? And Yuuta did kind of like the thought that he had dressed up.

He fidgeted a little more, putting his hands in his lap, and then putting them beside him, and then back in his lap. Then he looked around, and, not seeing Yumiko or his mother, fixed his eyes on the TV screen and reached out with his left hand.

He was close enough to Atobe that he didn't have to stretch. If Yumiko had walked in, she probably would have asked them why they were practically squashed next to each other when there was easily a metre of space on either side of them.

Yuuta hoped Yumiko didn't walk in.

Atobe didn't move his hand the first time when Yuuta pulled lightly on his wrist.

When Yuuta cleared his throat, stubbornly refusing to turn and look at Atobe, the other boy pulled his hand from his pocket and Yuuta slipped his fingers in between Atobe's, folding his fingers over.

Atobe's hand was warm, probably because it had been in his pocket.

It was a second or two before Yuuta felt Atobe's fingers folding over too, and a minute later that he felt himself relax.

Then Atobe's phone rang.

(S)

Yumiko peeked into the lounge, surprised to see only Yuuta sitting on the sofa. She wondered if Atobe had left, or if he were still there and by walking further in she'd only interrupt them, but when she did walk in, she was almost disappointed to find Atobe wasn't there.

Yuuta gave her a quick glance, but then returned his attention to the movie, and Yumiko decided it was better not to ask him about Atobe. She frowned in thought and started walking back toward the kitchen to get a glass of water, when she heard Atobe's voice. He was standing at the entrance, and for a moment, Yumiko thought he was talking to himself.

"Atobe-kun? Are you okay?" she asked, flicking on the light.

Then she noticed the phone at his ear. There was the sound of a click and a key from the door, and suddenly there were three of them in the hall, instead of two.

"I'm home."

"Welcome back, Dad."

(S)

Mukahi dropped the phone.

"That's a brand new phone, you know," Oshitari reminded him.

"I know!" Mukahi snapped and scrambled to pick it up again, pressing it to his ear.

Oshitari wondered what was so interesting on the other end of the phone line.

"He hung up," Mukahi declared, and looked annoyed. "But it was definitely a woman."

Oshitari blinked.

"Who was a woman?" he asked.

"I don't know," Mukahi blinked, "but he's definitely with a woman."

Oshitari rolled his eyes, uninterested.

"She's probably his _mother_, Gakuto."

"I know what Atobe's mother is like, Yuushi, and it wasn't her," Mukahi insisted. "She called him '_Atobe-kun_'. Would your mother call you '_Oshitari-kun_'?"

Oshitari sighed.

"What did Atobe say?"

Mukahi shook his head.

"Not much, apart from asking me what the problem was and why I was on your phone… And he said he was busy so stop calling unless it's an emergency and my heart stops."

Oshitari thought that sounded exactly like Atobe.

"Atobe's stupid," Mukahi said, though Oshitari didn't think he'd like it either if someone called him ten times in a row.

"I mean, have you ever seen a corpse dial, Yuushi?"

(S)

Flannelette pyjamas did not suit Ore-sama, Atobe decided. And certainly not ones with blue and white stripes, he thought.

He had never worn them before, and he didn't ever intend to wear them again, and if it hadn't been for the fact that Yuuta's mother had asked him to stay the night, he wouldn't be wearing them at all.

He felt and looked liked a piece of wrapping paper from a 100 yen store.

He yawned as he stared at himself in the mirror.

It was nearly one in the morning, and he wouldn't have minded turning down Yuuta's mother's invitation in favour of going home and sleeping in his king-size bed, except that Yuuta had kind of stood there in the kitchen, examining his empty glass and not meeting Atobe's eyes, which had made Atobe think he wouldn't feel satisfied just going home then.

So now he was wearing a pair of Fuji's pyjamas, because Yuuta's spares, which would have been big enough for him, were all at school, and had Atobe seen this forecoming, he would probably have rung home to tell someone to bring over his pyjamas.

He picked up the spare toothbrush Yumiko had gotten out for him and opened the packet, inspecting it with slight suspicion.

His arms felt funny against the flannelette material as he moved, and he hoped he didn't break into a rash. He hoped no one ever heard that he'd worn Fuji Syuusuke's pyjamas. He didn't think he'd be able to live it down.

(S)

Yuuta looked up from his bed as Atobe walked in the door.

He'd been wondering what had been taking so long, and he'd thought about going and knocking on the bathroom door, but he'd hesitated, and now Atobe was back again anyway.

His face looked a little pink. Yuuta wondered if he should ask if Atobe was okay, or if the pyjamas were too hot or maybe too small for him. His brother's pyjamas were only just big enough, and they only just managed to cover Atobe's ankles. Then it suddenly clicked in his head that maybe Atobe's face was pink for a different reason, and he subconsciously glanced downwards.

"I don't suppose you'd have any _normal_ toothpaste around, would you?" Atobe demanded, and Yuuta blinked, cheeks reddening as he looked back up at Atobe's face.

It took him a second to realise why Atobe was asking, and then he realised that the reason Atobe looked so flushed was probably because he had discovered Syuusuke's wasabi flavour toothpaste. He tried not to laugh as he got up from his bed and walked out of his room, back to the bathroom, to find the mint one he and Yumiko used.

He handed it to Atobe, and then because he hadn't brushed his own teeth yet, they ended up standing side by side, trying to pretend they weren't staring at each other while they had mouths full of bubbles and mint flavour.

(S)

"There's something wrong with your brother," Atobe muttered as they walked back to the bedroom.

Yuuta, about to frown, caught himself before he did so and cleared his throat. "I don't think there's anything wrong with him," he said, though really he thought Syuusuke was a freak and a half for eating everything in wasabi flavour.

He'd once baked a cake for Yuuta, but Yuuta didn't touch it until Yumiko ate a piece first and told him there was nothing green in it at all. Still, he tried to look serious as he turned to Atobe. "It's just a matter of personal taste, Atobe."

He grinned when Atobe scowled, having been teased one too many times about that already.

He nearly apologised, seeing the look on Atobe's face, but it did serve him right.

Instead, he gave Atobe a quick peck on the cheek – half in penance and half because he suspected if he didn't do it, Atobe might say it out loud, and it was embarrassing when Atobe said it aloud – and then quickly flicked off the light switch.

It seemed to work well enough, and Atobe didn't even complain about having to get into his futon in the dark, until five minutes later, Yuuta heard Atobe's voice.

"Yuuta."

"Huh? What?" he whispered.

"Ore-sama can't sleep on the floor."

"Why?"

"I have a sensitive back," Atobe informed him, and Yuuta couldn't help but think that everything about Atobe was sensitive.

"Just go to sleep and you won't feel anything," he grunted, turning away from Atobe.

Atobe was probably just being spoilt, he thought. There was nothing wrong with being on the floor; it was normal enough for most people.

Ten minutes later, Yuuta had had enough of hearing Atobe turn over and adjust the blanket and turn over again and adjust the blanket again.

"Fine, you can have the bed," he grumbled.

Atobe wasn't about to argue, and a minute after they'd changed pillows and beds, he was out like a light.

Yuuta sighed and turned over, trying to get his pillow comfortable under his head. It took him more than an hour to fall asleep.

His last coherent thought was that he hoped Atobe was happy up there in his bed, because he really didn't like it on the floor, and he wouldn't have even considered moving for anyone else.

Stupid Atobe, acting like a princess, he thought. But he turned to face his bed, and tried to make out Atobe's outline in the darkness. Then he fell asleep and dreamt of peas and chopsticks, wasabi flavoured toothpaste and of Atobe in flannel pyjamas.

.tbc.


	8. Chapter 7

Notes: And that makes three chapters in the space of a day XD I hope no one minds the spamming of inboxes with alerts :3 Enjoy the story! From next chapter onwards, the trouble starts :D;;

Archive: NO.

Reviews: Appreciated. :D I like them and they remind me to update. Thank you to the people who have reviewed so far.

**About Us**

Chapter 7

By Miki

Yuuta's first coherent thought upon waking up in the morning was that he needed the bathroom.

Fast.

What had he been doing before he went to bed? He felt like he must have drunk a whole litre of water.

His head felt heavy as he stumbled down the hallway to the bathroom, and on the way back, he nearly fell over his own feet.

"Morning Yuuta," Yumiko said, passing him as she pulled her dressing gown around her waist and tied it.

Yuuta mumbled a reply and trudged back into his room. He made it to his bed, lifting up the covers and climbing back into the comforting warmth.

His pillow was in the wrong spot, so he tugged it a little.

When it didn't move, he sat up again and glared down at it.

"Yuuta? What time is it?" his pillow said.

(S)

Yumiko and Yoshiko heard the thump from the kitchen.

"What do you think that was?" Yoshiko questioned, looking a little worried.

Yumiko shrugged, gravitating toward the coffee machine. "Probably Yuuta," she answered, imagining her brother falling over his own feet. He'd looked as though he were still asleep when she had walked past him, though she didn't think it was because the two boys had stayed up too late. She would have heard if they had.

Sound really travelled in this house.

"I wonder if he's okay," Yoshiko worried.

Yumiko yawned. "I'm sure he's fine," she said, pulling out a mug. "I'm sure Prince Charming will look after him if he's not," she added.

Atobe wasn't exactly her idea of a Prince Charming. Perhaps a knight in shining armour? No, he wasn't that either. He was more like a knight in shining, overpriced designer clothes, perhaps.

"What did you just say?" Yoshiko asked, snapping Yumiko from her thoughts.

Yumiko blinked.

Oops.

"Nothing," she smiled, caught between laughing and panicking, "I was just talking to myself."

(S)

Atobe propped himself up on his elbow and looked down at Yuuta. "What are you doing on the floor, Yuuta?" he demanded, stifling a yawn.

A glance at Yuuta's clock told him he'd barely had seven hours of sleep, and he was less than impressed at being woken at such an ungodly hour.

Yuuta was currently looking slightly surprised, and Atobe suspected he was the sort of person who didn't function properly until he'd put food into his stomach.

"Look," Atobe frowned, "either get back in the bed or go and eat some sustenance, because you look silly sitting there with your mouth open."

He rolled his eyes when Yuuta didn't respond except to close his mouth.

Then he pulled the covers back up and snuggled back into them, curling up on his side and facing the wall where it seemed less bright. He sighed. Did he always have to tell _everyone_ what to do?

On second thought, he should just have ordered Yuuta to get back into the bed, because if Yuuta went downstairs and ate, Atobe would like that even less. And besides, it seemed like he was passing up a good opportunity if he let Yuuta just go down to the kitchen and eat.

He suddenly felt much too awake to go back to sleep, but he kept his eyes closed, listening carefully to Yuuta shuffling around. His footsteps sounded funny, like he was walking to the door, and Atobe held his breath. Then the footsteps came closer again.

And went away again.

And came back again.

Atobe thought someone needed to tell Yuuta to make up his mind, but he was pretending to be asleep, so he could hardly sit up again to tell him so and give himself away like that.

Then he felt a cool rush of air hitting the back of his neck when Yuuta lifted up the covers again, and then felt the mattress sinking a little with the extra weight.

He let himself relax again, and smiled a little, feeling pleased with himself. That was, until Yuuta's knee hit his hip. Atobe frowned, trying to keep his eyes closed through the numbed feeling of discomfort.

"Sorry," Yuuta mumbled, wriggling down into the bed and lie on his back, his side and elbow pressing up against Atobe's back.

Atobe wondered if Yuuta was half hanging off the other side of the mattress. Had they been in _his_ bed, they wouldn't have had this problem.

His borrowed pyjamas twisted uncomfortably as he shifted onto his back, and he had to pull at them in a most undignified manner to stop them from working themselves up into sensitive places and hurting. He suspected he never would understand common people.

Yuuta was just wearing boxer shorts and a t-shirt though, and Atobe couldn't help but wonder if Fuji was just a sadist, wanting to wear such horrid things to bed.

Thinking of Fuji, Atobe suddenly wondered what time he'd be returning home. He wondered if he would be back before lunch or after it, and whether he would be gone by then or not, and then he wondered if it really mattered. Did he want to see Fuji or not see Fuji? He wasn't sure.

"Hey," Yuuta said suddenly.

"Hm?" Atobe answered, turning his head.

Yuuta did the same.

Their sides were pressed together in the small bed, but it was the way Yuuta met his gaze that made the flutter in Atobe's stomach return again. Yuuta's hair looked messier than usual; something Atobe hadn't thought possible. He moved his arm – somewhat awkwardly given their positions – and touched Yuuta's head.

Yuuta scowled a little at the feeling of a hand in his hair, and Atobe couldn't resist smirking. "You really ought not to look so grumpy so early in the morning, Yuuta."

"I'm not grumpy," Yuuta retorted, and turned on his side so he was facing Atobe properly.

"You know you'll get wrinkles if you frown so much," Atobe informed him, lips quirked slightly in a smile.

Yuuta blinked.

Then he stared at a spot on the pillow right in front of him, trying to ignore the funny, fluttery thrill that kept going through his body when Atobe did that. He felt like he was going cross-eyed.

"I won't," he retorted. "I'm not old like you."

Atobe snorted, not having seen that comment coming and not really caring about it either. He wasn't that much older than Yuuta, although sometimes he did wonder if Yuuta felt the gap in their ages.

From his point of view though, it was perhaps less of an age gap and more of a gap in their respective experiences in life and in society…

Yuuta was concentrating his energy on trying not to frown so much, but with Atobe giving him look that he could practically _feel_ on his skin, it was hard not to want to try to glare at him.

It was like Atobe was analysing him. Did he really look so bad?

Atobe was practically pressed up against the wall, Yuuta realised, but he hadn't really complained about that yet. He wondered if the other boy would. Atobe liked to complain about things like that.

Yuuta glanced at him, and he couldn't help but notice the way the top button of his brother's pyjama top had come undone, and the way the sleeve seemed all twisted around Atobe's arm, laying on and extending across the pillow above where Yuuta's head had been a moment before.

Yuuta wondered if Atobe saw him the way he saw Atobe. He wondered if that was possible with a face like his. He knew he liked looking at Atobe's back, and the way his shirts always seemed to perfectly fit his skin, unlike his own school shirts.

He liked watching the way Atobe's arms moved, and his shoulders too. His eyes naturally followed the lines of Atobe's body from his neck to his shoulders, and then from his shoulders to his sides and his belt and his hips…

He didn't think Atobe knew he liked looking at him like that, and he didn't really want him to know either.

It was something he usually started doing without noticing, and by the time he caught himself, it wasn't just his chest that felt tight and his stomach that felt fluttery.

Did Atobe ever look at him like that?

It embarrassed him to think of his own body like that, and he wondered if it was possible for anyone else to do so at all.

He'd gotten love letters sometimes, and the girls who had sent them had written things about liking the way he played tennis or liking his smile – Yuuta usually stopped reading any letter that mentioned his smile because he was pretty sure he had practically never smiled at a girl, so it had to be made up, and he didn't like the thought of a girl imagining him smiling and writing it down in a love letter because it probably meant she was delusional – but none of the girls who wrote those letters ever mentioned anything else, really.

Sometimes they wrote that they thought his scar was cool, and sometimes they asked if he would tell them where it came from. He wondered what Atobe thought of his scar. He probably thought it looked funny.

Something brushing against Yuuta's thigh caught his attention, and he realised quickly that it was Atobe's leg.

Yuuta was starting to feel a bit warm in the bed. He wondered if Atobe could feel it too, or if it was just that he wasn't used to having the extra body heat as well as his blankets.

"What time do you have to go back to school today?" Atobe asked.

Yuuta hesitated in replying.

"Afternoon, before dinner."

Atobe closed his eyes. For a moment, Yuuta expected him to say something about lunch, or about afternoon tea at least. And then –

"You know, you really should buy a bigger bed."

Yuuta let out an exasperated sigh. Atobe just couldn't help himself, could he? He _had_ to mention it sometime.

"I'm sure something like this must be stunting your growth," Atobe continued. "My feet are already at the very end of your bed at any rate, and you're not that much shorter than I am."

Yuuta propped himself up on one elbow and stared down at Atobe.

Atobe frowned a little in irritation.

"You're letting in the cold air," he complained, and Yuuta rolled his eyes.

"Well I'm hot," he said, and frowned back.

Atobe frowned at him a moment longer, then he closed his eyes.

"Fine."

Yuuta wondered if he was sulking.

(S)

"The maid who picked up said that Atobe wasn't at home," Gakuto reported.

Oshitari yawned and pulled the quilt back up to his chin. He'd only woken up two minutes ago, and Gakuto was already bombarding him with useless information and even more useless questions.

"So?" Oshitari prompted.

"So I asked when he'd be home again and she said that she thought the car would probably be sent to pick him up some time before lunch because Atobe has an appointment at two."

"And?" Oshitari sighed, feeling too awake to go back to sleep, but happy enough to pretend that he wasn't entirely conscious.

"And I think we should follow it," Gakuto concluded, giving Oshitari an expectant look.

Oshitari pulled the quilt over his head. Gakuto's mother always had the maid make up the bed in the guest room for him, but Oshitari thought it was a waste of time and effort since it seemed as though whenever he slept in there, Gakuto did too, so they ended up only using one bed between them anyway.

Trying to sleep with someone who slept like a hurricane had serious disadvantages.

The first time Oshitari had woken up with Gakuto in his bed, the covers had been completely thrown off and Gakuto's knee was alarmingly close to his face.

He was more or less used to it now, and Gakuto didn't seem to move around so much anymore, but Oshitari still thought it was rather pointless to even try to pretend they were going to sleep in separate beds.

Last night he'd woken up with Gakuto's knee in his back, and then when he'd gotten back to sleep again, he found his leg pinned under Gakuto's knee.

Now Gakuto was awake, Oshitari was having his ear talked off.

"Maybe Atobe's at Shishido's," Oshitari suggested, as amused as a sleep-deprived boy could be at the prospect of Gakuto ringing up Shishido at this time of morning and demanding to know where their captain had gone.

Gakuto pulled the covers off his head and frowned.

"What did you just say, Yuushi?"

Oshitari rolled his eyes. "I said that maybe _Atobe_ is at _Shishido's_," he repeated. Not that he really believed that. He just wanted Gakuto to find someone else to talk about rather than Atobe. He was starting to get sick of hearing about Atobe and Yuu-chan and Atobe and Atobe and Atobe and Atobe and –

"But Atobe didn't s-"

Oshitari sat up and clapped a hand over Gakuto's mouth.

"You know, I think I've heard that name enough times already this morning, and you know what time it is, Gakuto?"

Gakuto cast his eyes toward the clock as he pulled Oshitari's arm away from his face.

"It's ten. So what's your point?"

Oshitari sighed, exasperated.

"And anyway, I'm not going to ring Shishido," Gakuto protested. "He never knows anything, and he's so stupid that I feel like my brain cells combust every time I have to listen to anything that comes out of his mouth. And anyway, so what if Atobe likes Shishido? It's not like they're joined at the hip, because Shishido's always hanging out with Ootori, so don't you think-"

Oshitari really wished Gakuto hadn't thrown the covers to the end of the bed. He wanted to stick his head back under them because he felt like he was going to combust any moment.

(S)

Atobe wondered what Yuuta was thinking. He wasn't about to open his eyes, because he'd closed them feeling annoyed, and he wasn't about to open them until he thought Yuuta was feeling bad about letting in the cold.

He wondered if that would take a while. He wondered if he shouldn't be so stubborn. He wondered why Yuuta was so quiet.

He was almost tempted to open his eyes to check, but he could still feel Yuuta next to him, so he wasn't about to give in, though he wasn't quite sure what he would be giving in to…

Why did it bother him so much?

Maybe it was because he still wasn't quite sure what he was doing with Yuuta, or maybe it was because he wasn't really sure what Yuuta was thinking about him.

Did everyone feel like this when they were with someone they liked? Or was it just him? He didn't know, but he knew that uncertainty made him feel funny whenever he caught himself looking at Yuuta and wanting, _hoping_ to do more with him, _hoping_ that maybe Yuuta was just as curious as he was.

Atobe's eyes flew open the moment he felt a touch at the side of his face and he instinctively stared at Yuuta, wondering what the touch was for.

Yuuta stared back at him for a second, before blinking; his cheeks turning a little pink.

"You were frowning," he stated, and Atobe wondered if he was about to repeat his line about getting wrinkles back at him, when Yuuta wriggled a little closer and moved an arm awkwardly across him.

"Sorry," he mumbled.

Atobe wanted to reach up to grasp Yuuta's hand, which was pressing against his arm. He wanted to hold Yuuta there, to make sure he didn't move too quickly, because he could feel the warmth of Yuuta's fingers and hand through his pyjama sleeves, and because he'd never felt Yuuta so close to him before.

He hesitated though, unsure whether Yuuta would automatically take his arm back if he moved first. He wanted to ask Yuuta why he was apologising too, but something kept him from voicing his curiosity.

Yuuta's hand fumbled and found Atobe's, and Atobe wondered if Yuuta had read his mind or if he'd been meaning to do that all along.

He felt like his body was getting hotter from the inside out; maybe nervousness, and maybe thrill.

Yuuta was so close he was almost on top of him, and Atobe ran his spare hand through Yuuta's hair again, eyes dropping to stare at Yuuta's neck as he did so, in part because he didn't quite have the courage to look at Yuuta's face as he moved, and in part because he'd thought he wanted to kiss Yuuta, but he suddenly realised he didn't just want to taste Yuuta's mouth.

He wanted to touch Yuuta's neck and throat and shoulders. He wanted to know if there was a spot there that made Yuuta's mind blank and his toes curl. He wanted to know if it really happened like it happened in movies.

"Yuuta." His voice was barely audible, and much quieter than he'd meant it to come out.

He felt Yuuta's body stiffen a little next to him, and it seemed like Yuuta drew in a big breath before he answered.

"Yeah."

Atobe swallowed.

Yuuta didn't look him in the eye, but as Atobe kept his eyes focused over the other boy's shoulder – too shy still to look him in the eye, but too nervous not to want to try – he spoke first.

It was a mumble, and an almost incomprehensible mumble, but for the fact that Atobe was getting used to them.

"Can I…" Yuuta began, and took another deep breath, "can I… kiss you?"

Atobe's chest felt painfully tight, like his heart was beating too much, too fast all of a sudden, and he just wasn't remembering to breathe.

Was it adrenalin? Or was this feeling the effect of hormones, he wondered.

"Yuuta."

He'd spoken Yuuta's name before he realised it, and he almost smiled at it, for a moment confused and amused and wondering why he couldn't pinpoint exactly when it had been that he'd started thinking about Yuuta like this.

Yuuta's grey eyes were fixed on his when he finally met his gaze, and Atobe moved his hand from the top of Yuuta's head to the back.

It was uncomfortable, but he managed to pull Yuuta just a little closer, as he craned his own neck.

Their lips touched, and Yuuta's felt a little dry.

They kissed again, and again, and then Yuuta shifted and suddenly Atobe realised he could feel one of Yuuta's legs between his own.

Yuuta's other leg was on the other side of his, and Atobe could feel Yuuta shifting his weight where they were holding hands.

The hand that had been on his head moved, and Atobe almost wanted to make Yuuta put it back again, because he'd liked the way Yuuta touched him there, but then Yuuta kissed his lips again and Atobe decided he didn't mind not having the hand on his hair.

Atobe let his head fall back onto the pillow as he felt Yuuta shifting again, moving his leg so that his two legs were on either side of Atobe's body and his weight pressed down across Atobe's stomach and hips and groin.

The covers lifted up again with the movement, and cool air rushed in, but Atobe couldn't have cared less.

Yuuta's hand touched his hair again at the same moment he lowered his lips to kiss Atobe's again. There was a moment of hesitation then, and both boys could feel it, almost painfully aware of the tension in their bodies, but then Yuuta broke it, parting his lips to tentatively press his tongue against the slight gap between Atobe's lips.

Atobe parted his lips without hesitating any further; both curiosity and the tingly feeling in his body getting the better of his worries.

It was less awkward than the first time they'd done it. Yuuta tilted his head a little so their noses didn't bump, and Atobe lifted his spare arm and wrapped it around Yuuta's neck and shoulder, liking the way he could feel Yuuta's stomach pressing against his through their clothes.

There was a pause as both of them registered the fact their mouths tasted slightly sour, and Yuuta pulled back a little, holding his body up and wrinkling up his nose.

Atobe smiled a little, feeling equally silly and slightly embarrassed.

"Kind of weird," Yuuta said sheepishly, smiling back, cheeks flushed and eyes bright.

Atobe could see him moving his tongue around the inside of his mouth, but he resisted doing the same thing. He felt Yuuta moving against him a little, and wondered if he was going to get up. Yuuta didn't though.

His lips moving to kiss Atobe's again took Atobe completely by surprise, but then he parted his lips again, and Yuuta slipped his tongue in, and they were back to where they'd just been before.

Yuuta shifted his hand in Atobe's hair, fingers moving through the long strands of hair.

Atobe closed his eyes, holding Yuuta's hand tighter. It occurred to him later, that even allowing for the slight sourness of the tastes of their mouths, he still couldn't have asked for a better start to the day.

(S)

Yumiko smiled as Yuuta stumbled down the last step and found his way to the table for breakfast. "Did you sleep well?" she asked, and avoided rubbing the top of his head though she wanted to.

There was a nod in response, and though Yuuta kept his eyes downcast as usual, Yumiko noticed they were bright, as were his cheeks.

Atobe emerged a moment later, and Yumiko realised Yuuta must have waited for Atobe to shower and dress before coming down, which could explain his slightly more alert state than usual.

But then she noticed the slight redness around Atobe's mouth, and snuck a glance at Yuuta's when she poured him a drink, and had her answer.

It took all of her self control not to laugh, and she had to bite her lip – literally – to stop herself from saying anything for the first half of breakfast while her mother was still at the table.

When Yoshiko got up to answer the phone though, she smiled across at Atobe, certain that she must have looked right at that moment, like the cat that got the cream.

"I notice your mouth looks a little red this morning, Atobe-kun."

He looked up at her quickly, and then sideways at Yuuta. "No, it's nothing," he replied, and she wanted to roll her eyes childishly at his response, wanting more of a witty retort rather than a denial.

It was now an hour and a half after she'd bumped into Yuuta in the hallway, and she knew he rarely managed to return to sleep for long after waking up, and then she'd heard the bump after that too.

She was pretty sure not even Atobe could sleep through a noise like that so the two boys had to have been up to something during that time.

"Are you sure it's nothing?" she questioned, looking concerned. "Perhaps you have a food allergy you weren't aware of?"

Atobe took a sip of his tea. "No, it's really nothing," he insisted, avoiding looking her in the face.

Yumiko nearly sighed, still missing Syuusuke's presence at the table. Oh, wouldn't it have been fun to have him here.

"No red spots anywhere on your body?" she questioned.

Atobe blinked, seemingly surprised by the question. Then he shook his head slowly and deliberately and looked her in the eyes.

"No, not on _mine_, but perhaps you're right about there being something funny with the food last night, since I thought I saw some on Yuuta this morning."

Yumiko turned to her brother, half uncertain as to whether Atobe was taking her question literally or not.

"Yuuta?"

Yuuta had turned a bright shade of red.

It clicked in Yumiko's head then that Atobe had gotten the better of her, and she resisted the urge to shoot him a glare. It was hardly the ladylike thing to do, and besides, even she could admit that she hadn't seen that one coming. Syuusuke would probably be horrified to know that she was starting to think that Atobe was more than just an amusing piece of entertainment.

She watched him over the top of her tea. Atobe caught her eye then and stared back.

Yuuta glanced between the two of them, still looking pink in the face.

Yumiko noted the wary look that passed across his face, and she smiled at him for a moment. It was odd to think that she was starting to see what it was about Atobe and Yuuta that attracted them to each other, odd and contrasting in many ways as they were.  
Yuuta's voice caught her off-guard then.

"Actually Atobe," he frowned a little, turning to the boy, "I'm pretty sure you have more spots than I do, since your body is so sensitive, _remember_?"

Then he glanced at Yumiko.

"Maybe Nee-san could examine you. You're good at playing doctor, aren't you, Nee-san? 'Cause you used to do it all the time with your old boyfriends, didn't you?"

Then he took a long sip of his tea, and it was all Yumiko could do not to stare at him in shock or laugh out loud. When had her younger brother learnt to talk like that, she wondered. She couldn't help but feel just a little proud of him though; never having seen him really talk back to her like that before.

The incensed look on Atobe's face amused her more than it ought to, and she found herself smiling at him. Yes, Syuusuke would be absolutely horrified with her, she decided.

.tbc.


	9. Chapter 8

Notes: I forgot about updating again, haha XD It's been a whole week. :D;

Archive: NO.

Reviews: Appreciated. :D I like them and they remind me to update. Thank you to the people who have reviewed so far.

**About Us**

Chapter 8

By Miki

Gakuto's knees hurt.

They'd been peering over the car bonnet for nearly five minutes now, and he could swear the grass was making his legs itch. Maybe there were ants crawling up his legs.

He glanced down, and spread his legs a bit wider on the patch of grass beneath him, but it didn't really help since his knees were too sore already.

Beside him Oshitari squinted, concentrating.

"The name plate says Fuji," Gakuto declared.

"I can see that," Oshitari replied, almost rolling his eyes at the simplicity of Gakuto's observation. He suspected he knew exactly what Gakuto was thinking.

"You don't think it could be Fuji Syuusuke, do you?" Gakuto questioned.

Oshitari looked around them. "Perhaps," he said, and then, just to be safe he added, "though Fuji is a common name, you know."

Gakuto pulled a face. "Of course I know that. What do you think I am, stupid?"

Oshitari was saved from answering by the fact that Gakuto hit his arm hard then and ducked down further.

Oshitari rubbed at his arm as he followed Gakuto's lead. He didn't like the ground any more than Gakuto did, but they were hiding on one side of the bonnet of the parked taxi, only ten metres or so from Atobe's limousine on the other side of the road.

Oshitari personally thought it would be a small wonder if Atobe didn't see them, raise the eyebrow and give them fifty laps on Monday, but Gakuto seemed to think they were safe here.

They'd been watching in the hope that someone would come out of the house soon, but both of them nearly panicked when they recognised a figure walking down the street, a bag slung over his shoulder.

He stopped outside the house they were watching, and slowly turned around.

Then he smiled at them.

(S)

Yuuta wanted to tell Atobe to stop smirking.

He wanted to ask if the muscles in Atobe's face didn't get tired from doing that all the time, but he couldn't really do it with Yumiko standing next to him and crowding the doorway.

"You're welcome back anytime you'd like," his mother smiled.

Yuuta caught her glance and looked away.

"It's so rare that Yuuta brings any friends home, and it's really been a pleasure to have you," she went on.

Yuuta could have sworn she'd said exactly the same thing yesterday.

"The pleasure's all mine," was Atobe's answer, and Yuuta could practically feel his mother's delight.

Atobe smiled at him then, and Yuuta scowled back at him quickly, trying to hide any signs of the inner panic he felt. He could swear Atobe was oozing charm or something, and it felt like he was almost _trying_ to chat up his mother.

"You know, I think I will take you up on your offer for crème brulee," Yumiko interrupted.

Yuuta thought Atobe looked slightly annoyed for a moment, but he nodded anyway, and a moment later, smirked. "Of course. Just let me know when you'll next be in the area."

Yoshiko eyed him for a moment and Yuuta held his breath. Then she simply smiled. "Will do."

"Oh," Yoshiko interrupted, "isn't that Syuusuke? Yumiko, you didn't go and pick him up?"

Yuuta looked up hurriedly, eyes landing on the figure walking along the footpath.

Yumiko shook her head. "No, he didn't ask."

Yuuta stepped out of the doorway, cringing as he realised it really was Syuusuke. He pulled a face as Atobe walked past him to meet his brother on the driveway. He followed Atobe out, and heard Yumiko following him, and turned around a moment later to realise that his mother had disappeared inside.

He breathed half a sigh of relief.

(S)

Atobe smirked at Fuji.

Fuji smiled back, and then whisked straight past to Yuuta.

Atobe spun around, irritated.

He'd been expecting a jibe or a comment at least, but there was nothing except that annoying smile, and the more Atobe saw it, the more he disliked it.

"Aniki, I thought you weren't coming back until later," Yuuta said.

Atobe thought he sounded wary, and waited, expecting Yuuta to walk over any moment.

"Didn't you want to see me?"

Atobe heard the teasing tone in Fuji's voice, and watched as Yuuta rolled his eyes.

"No," he huffed.

"You're just being shy," Fuji declared. "Anyway, I have something to show you," he said, and before either Yumiko or Atobe could protest, Fuji was dragging Yuuta back up to the front door and through it.

Atobe frowned, suddenly feeling incensed. He knew exactly what Fuji's problem was, but that didn't give him any excuse to behave like that. Quite frankly, he suddenly struck Atobe as a petulant child – one whose behaviour was starting to look rather underhanded – and Atobe couldn't help but feel a little irked at the thought that he'd started out wanting Fuji's attention at all.

The only thing that stopped him stewing further was Yumiko's hand brushing his arm as she walked past him, down to the limo.

"Atobe-kun."

He felt stiff as he walked to where she was standing.

He was wearing yesterday's clothes – something which he'd never done before, even in the direst of circumstances – and his hair felt a little dry and out of place, and now the discontent of seeing Fuji right before he left was making him feel a little crabby.

"Don't mind Syuusuke," Yumiko said, but he didn't listen to her.

(S)

Gakuto hung up the phone after three rings.

Shishido hadn't answered the phone five minutes ago and he didn't really expect him to answer it now, especially since he'd even tried ringing Shishido's home phone number, and his brother had picked up and hung up the moment after Gakuto had asked to speak to Shishido. Gakuto was unimpressed, but it wasn't as though he'd expected anything better from a Shishido.

Oshitari was flicking through one of their textbooks, legs sprawled out on the floor. Gakuto wished he'd stop pretending to study. 

His own legs were still itchy from kneeling on the grass a few hours before, but he'd decided that was a small sacrifice for the fact that he was now 99 sure he had the identity of the mysterious Yuu-chan.

Or, as Oshitari reminded him, Yuu. After all, Atobe had never called her 'Yuu-chan'. It had been Ootori who'd blurted _that_ out, and he was sure that Ootori didn't know any more than they did on the subject.

In fact, Gakuto thought, he now knew decidedly less. The thought made him feel smug, and he couldn't wait for Monday morning so he could spring it on Atobe.

Admittedly, he still couldn't quite get his head around the idea of Atobe dating an older woman, but he'd seen them, and Oshitari had seen them too, so it wasn't just a figment of his own imagination.

Fuji's sister's name was something starting with 'Yu', Oshitari had said, which fit. She was Fuji's elder sister, and Gakuto remembered she had been to some of his matches in the past. Still, he couldn't quite see what Atobe saw in her. She was good looking, but Gakuto still couldn't understand why Atobe couldn't just date a girl their age.

Fuji's sister looked kind of… _old_.

He tried Ootori's number a moment later, but no one answered that either.

"Why don't you just leave it," Oshitari suggested, putting down his book and book marking his page. He shook his head, a trace of a smirk on his face. "Besides, it's not as though they need to know."

Gakuto put down the phone, his feelings of annoyance only slightly soothed. "Fine," he conceded, picking up his drink and taking a gulp. "But Shishido's stupid," he added.

He glanced at Oshitari for a reaction, but he only got a raised eyebrow. Shishido _was_ stupid, he told himself again.

Served _him_ right if he was the last to know the news. And Atobe dating Fuji's sister was news.

(S)

"Nee-san?" Yuuta questioned, when Atobe had left.

He was lying face down on his bed, arms folded in front of him and his Tennis Pro magazine pushed slightly to the side.

Yumiko tilted her head a little. "What is it?"

Yuuta squirmed against the covers of his bed and looked uncomfortable, but he was faster to the point that Yumiko had thought he would be. "What do you think of Atobe?"

Yumiko didn't hesitate when she answered. "I think he's a much nicer boy than I gave him credit for, and I think he's a good friend," she smiled.

When she glanced down at Yuuta, his ears had turned a bright shade of pink.

"He is," he said, mumbling into his arms.

"I like him," Yumiko said. She hadn't meant to say that at all, and for a moment she wanted to take it back, but then she looked down at Yuuta again.

"Really?" he asked.

She ran a hand through her hair. "Really," she smiled.

Yuuta practically beamed at her.

(S)

"Jirou!" Gakuto called out.

Jirou lifted up his head and stared somewhat blearily at him.

Gakuto pulled a face.

"Jirou, aren't you supposed to be doing something?"

Jirou gave him a sleepy look, and Gakuto frowned.

Sakaki wanted him to practise his serving accuracy, but Gakuto was more set on finding out Fuji's sister's name, and he was pretty sure Jirou should know it.

Oshitari was still talking with Atobe anyway, so it wasn't as though Gakuto had anyone to practise with. He could have done it by himself, and he knew that, but it wasn't as fun like that, and there wasn't really any space around right now where he could just hit balls over the net and have them accumulate, rather than having to fetch them back all the time.

"Jirou," he said, when Jirou let his head drop again. He was sitting on the bench, and Gakuto could swear he'd been asleep since practice started. He poked the boy with the handle of his tennis racquet, waking him up again before plonking down next to him.

"Hey, you know Fuji Syuusuke, right?"

"Sort of," Jirou yawned, and tried to cover his eyes with his arm. The sun was strong today, and there wasn't really any cover around. It was a little hard to sleep when he shut his eyes only to find a kind of bright pink instead of darkness greeting him.

"Sort of?" Gakuto prompted. "What do you mean, 'sort of'? You know his sister's name, right?"

Jirou blinked, a little confused. "But what does that have to do with Fuji?" he questioned, his head not quite making any connections between Mukahi's sentences right now.

"So what's her name?" Gakuto prompted, and Jirou frowned.

"Fuji Yumiko, I think."

Gakuto looked tense. "Are you sure?" he questioned, leaning forwards on the bench and leaning in close to peer at Jirou's face.

"Yeah, I think… But why don't you ask Kabaji? He remembers weird stuff like that," Jirou said, still puzzled. "Why do you want to know though?"

Gakuto tossed his racquet into the air. "Just because," he smirked.

Then he caught his racquet and walked off, leaving Jirou wondering about him.

(S)

"But the 'Yu' in Yumiko isn't 'Yuu'," Oshitari said, and looked a little annoyed.

Gakuto rolled his eyes. "So it's a pet name," he insisted. "And it doesn't fit anyone else, does it?"

Oshitari sat back and crossed his legs, sipping his milkshake. "I don't know," he said, a little hesitantly.

Gakuto frowned in annoyance and watched as he adjusted his glasses and stared out the window. "Honestly, Yuushi," he sighed, "if Atobe _isn't_ seeing Fuji Yumiko, and if Fuji Yumiko _isn't_ Yuu-chan, then what was Atobe doing at Fuji's house?"

Oshitari looked lost for answers, and Gakuto smirked. "And besides, _you_ saw it too, right?"

Oshitari took another long sip of his milkshake before he replied with a nod.

Gakuto sat back. "So it has to be her," he said, shaking his head.

There was no other explanation for Atobe being at Fuji's house, he thought. Besides, although neither of them could really explain why Atobe had stayed the night there – or, at least, they were assuming that since they knew he hadn't been home the night before – Gakuto figured that maybe it was just a matter of convenience.

It was a little weird that Fuji's mother had been there, he admitted. But they were pretty sure now that the voice they'd heard on the phone the night before was Yumiko's, and everything else seemed to fit.

Still, Gakuto couldn't help but feel that something wasn't quite right.

(S)

Yuuta turned down the last aisle of the library and was almost disappointed to find that Atobe wasn't there.

Then he caught himself and felt silly for it. Of course Atobe wasn't there; he probably had other things to do, or he was at home or something.

Yuuta pulled a face as he lifted a book off the shelf.

It wasn't as though Atobe lived in the library, or happened to be there whenever he was, though he wondered why somewhere along the way, he'd started to think like that. Besides, if he wanted to see Atobe, he could always ring.

Atobe hadn't said anything about going out to dinner this week, but Yuuta figured they'd just work it out later.

(S)

Yanagisawa found Yuuta sitting on his bed. "Hey," he said, and walked into the room, pushing the door shut behind him.

"What are you doing, da ne?"

Yuuta looked up at him quickly, putting down his phone. "Nothing," was his answer, and Yanagisawa tilted his head a little.

"Nothing da ne?"

Yuuta sighed a little and tilted his head back, stretching the muscles in his neck and rolling his shoulders. "Yup, nothing," he said again.

Yanagisawa walked over to the bed and sat on the end of it, looking at Yuuta. Atsushi had been right. There was something weird about Yuuta lately.

He'd been swinging between happy and cranky and normal and weird lately, and though Yanagisawa thought things had worked out last week, he was starting to wonder if he wasn't wrong. Yuuta had been smiling last week, even if he scowled the minute he thought someone was looking at him, but this week he'd been weirdly quiet, and even Yanagisawa's teasing had gone unanswered.

"So…" he said.

"So…?" Yuuta repeated, hardly changing his expression.

He pulled his book a little closer to him, and Yanagisawa had to lean closer and tilt his head to see the title written at the top of the page. It was an English book he didn't know.

Yuuta had been reading a lot of English books lately, and though Yanagisawa had heard from Mizuki that Yuuta's English grade was slipping, he couldn't really imagine Yuuta flunking a subject that he always seemed to be studying lately. St Rudolph's tennis regulars were expected to have decent grades though, and everyone knew that the moment you started flunking anything at school, you'd be kicked out of club activities. Yanagisawa dreaded to think what would happen to Yuuta if he let that happen to his grades.

"So… You haven't gone out much this week, da ne."

Yuuta shrugged. "So what? I haven't felt like it."

Yanagisawa relaxed a little. "I'm going shopping tomorrow, da ne. Want to come, da ne?"

Yuuta glanced at his phone on his bedside table. It was Friday afternoon and Atobe hadn't called once. He knew he was being stupid for letting it bother him and not doing anything about it – like calling Atobe first – but he kept wondering if it was something he'd done on the weekend.

He didn't think it was, but he couldn't understand why else his phone had been so quiet all week.

He'd started writing messages a few times too, but they all sounded weird, like he was paranoid or obsessive or something, and he figured if he didn't message, then Atobe would probably message anyway.

But he'd woken up Wednesday morning and there had been nothing.

Thursday morning had just brought a message from his brother, and this morning had just brought a call from his mother, asking him if he was coming back for the weekend again.

Yanagisawa waved an arm in front of his face. "Are you listening, da ne?"

Yuuta frowned at him. "What?"

He hadn't been listening, but he didn't really care anyway. The more he thought about it, the more he wondered if it really was something he'd done.

Kissing Atobe kept coming back into his head, like a scene playing over and over again, but that couldn't have been it, could it? Atobe kissed him first anyway, and didn't normal people do that when they were dating?

Yuuta's subconscious reminded him that Atobe had never really said anything about dating, and he glanced at his phone again. The light on it hadn't flashed all day since he'd answered his mother's call, even though he kept wishing it would.

Atobe was probably just having a busy week, he told himself. He was Hyoutei's captain, after all, and he had schoolwork as well as paperwork and training, and whatever else he did as a captain. Hyoutei didn't even have a vice either, Yuuta reminded himself.

The silence in his room was disconcerting suddenly, and Yuuta blinked and looked around, realising Yanagisawa had left. He bookmarked the page in his book, realising he'd probably have to reread everything he'd read today anyway. Then he walked down the corridor to Mizuki's room and knocked.

Mizuki was sorting through his underwear drawer, and between the striped jocks and the purple boxers, Yuuta managed to forget about his phone and about Atobe.

.tbc.


	10. Chapter 9

Archive: NO. 

Reviews: Things you like? Things you don't like? Anything else? On a related note, is there something scary about reviewing that I can't see? Or is it because I usually use the tagline 'nice but not necessary' these days? I wonder.

**About Us**

Chapter 9

By Miki

Yuuta thought Atobe sounded tired.

More than tired, even.

Atobe sounded like someone might sound if he'd run a marathon, written a thesis and climbed Mount Fuji in the space of a week, and even though Yuuta had a feeling he was trying to hide it, Atobe just couldn't stop yawning.

He'd yawned almost as much as he'd spoken already and they'd only been on the phone a few minutes.

"So as I was saying, unless you have any objections, I wouldn't mind trying the new place in Ao–" Atobe stifled a yawn.

Yuuta smirked, amused.

He'd been about to call Atobe when Atobe called him first.

Maybe it was because Atobe was so tired or perhaps he didn't have much time talk, but Yuuta had expected a complaint about not having called him first and he hadn't got one, so he wasn't about to start the complaining.

He grinned as Atobe started to speak again.

And yawned again.

"Aoyama," Atobe finished somewhat lamely a moment later.

"Maybe you should take an early night," Yuuta suggested.

Atobe was silent for a moment.

"I can't."

"Why not?" Yuuta questioned, stopping short of telling Atobe how tired he really sounded.

He picked up his pen and drew circles at the edge of his maths homework.

He'd been working on it before he'd started playing with his phone, but now his trigonometry exercises had become squiggles and doodles and there was one that looked like it might be Atobe's head right next to the answer to problem five.

Its hair was pretty poofy and though that could have made it Mizuki on a bad hair day, or Yanagisawa before he'd attacked his hair gel, Yuuta was more inclined to think it looked like Atobe.

"I have homework," Atobe informed him then, sounding a little offended at Yuuta's question. "I don't know what sort of school _your_ school is, but at Hyoutei, we actually have to work for our grades."

Yuuta's hand froze in its movement, his fingers gripping his pen tightly.

"And you think _I_ don't?" he questioned, frowning and glaring down at his homework.

He wondered how he could have forgotten how egocentric Atobe could be.

There was a silence on the other end of the line before Atobe sighed.

"That wasn't what I meant, Yuuta, and you know it."

Yuuta gripped the phone harder in his hand, trying to hide his annoyance.

"What did you mean then?"

There wasn't any other way to take Atobe's words. He'd meant exactly what he'd said and they both knew it.

He'd meant that Yuuta wasn't as good as him; that they weren't on an equal playing field.

And Yuuta knew exactly why it annoyed him.

It was a thought that had been going around in his head ever since he'd met Atobe.

"I meant that…" Atobe sighed again, sounding annoyed and trailing off when he yawned again.

Yuuta felt his annoyance leaving him at the tone in Atobe's voice, and then Atobe stifled another yawn and Yuuta poked his pen at the head on his page, drawing on a dot under its right eye.

They ended up finishing their call without really getting anywhere and Yuuta ended up going to bed feeling just a bit annoyed; whether at himself or Atobe, he wasn't sure.

(S)

Shishido wasn't sure when his backside had started going numb.

All he knew was that he'd been sitting here with Atobe, Jirou and Ootori for a lot longer than he'd thought he could even sit still, and they weren't showing any signs of getting bored.

Maybe it wouldn't have been quite so bad if Ootori hadn't been doing such a good job of ignoring him.

It wasn't that Shishido expected him to pay attention every minute of every day, but after the incident with Tooru the other day, he was feeling like maybe Ootori hadn't really learnt anything after all.

The way Jirou kept nearly falling asleep was annoying him too.

Didn't he have anything better to do than sleep? They were here at Ootori's house because Jirou had suggested they change their training exercises in the lead up to nationals, and since the whole training exercise had been his idea, he could at least give some input into their meeting.

Why Shishido was here instead of someone like Oshitari, who actually thought he knew better than everyone else, he wasn't sure.

Shishido thought it probably had something to do with the way Gakuto and Oshitari had been pestering Atobe about his girlfriend in the change rooms the other day, but he could have been wrong.

It could just be Atobe being stupid.

There were times that Shishido thought Atobe was acting more like a girl with PMS than any girl he'd ever seen, and as Atobe snatched Ootori's piece of paper again, he decided that now was probably one of those times.

Ootori pulled his hand back quickly, cringing a little.

Shishido thought at first that he might have a paper cut, but when he peered a little at it, he realised the look on Ootori's face wasn't because it had hurt but because he hadn't expected it.

Shishido sat forward in his seat then, glancing at Jirou as he slept in his chair, and then at Atobe as he frowned at Ootori's papers.

"Ootori, I said _Wednesday_, not _Tuesday_, and Ore-sama is most definitely not getting up at five AM; I clearly said six AM and you would have heard it if you hadn't been too busy trying to wake up Jirou. I already told you-"

"Look, Atobe, why don't you write it yourself if you don't like Choutarou's writing?" Shishido snapped, annoyed.

"It's okay, Shishido-san. I don't mind," Ootori protested, trying to quiet Shishido down.

Shishido shot him a glare and then narrowed his eyes at Atobe.

"What would be the point of having appointed a scribe then?" Atobe shot back, frowning. "Ore-sama has better things to do than sit and write like a common scribe, and had Ootori actually been listening to me like he's supposed to, he wouldn't have to write it all again."

"Why don't you write it yourself since you don't seem to need our input anyway?" Shishido returned, frustrated with the way this meeting was going.

It was only Monday afternoon and Atobe was already acting like it was a Friday and Kabaji wasn't here so there wasn't even anyone to put up with his demands and just answer him with an "usu".

Shishido didn't get that though either, since Kabaji's two syllable answer had always irked him a bit, and didn't Atobe get annoyed at someone who always said the same thing?

Probably not, Shishido decided.

Atobe probably just liked sheep to agree with him.

Atobe pursed his lips.

"I didn't say that I didn't need your input, Shishido, but if spouting off is all you can do, then why don't you just go back home, arn?"

Shishido sat forwards in his chair.

"Why don't _you_ go home, Atobe? You're the one making a fuss about nothing."

Atobe banged his pen into the tabletop.

"I'm not going home, Shishido, because unlike _you_, I'm actually trying to get this finished before Kantoku asks about it tomorrow, because you know he's going to ask about it and you know that if it's not done, _I'll_ be the one in trouble. So if you're not going to help, go home now."

Shishido glared in response. He'd passed the point of frustration a long time ago, boredom before that and irritation even before that, but the words he wanted to spit out were stuck on the tip of his tongue.

Instead, the only ones he could say were the ones that fell out of his mouth before he'd realised he was saying them.

"What's you problem Atobe? You order people like Choutarou around, telling him to do what you want, and then you turn around and tell him he's not doing a good enough job and get stuck into him over nothing! Then next moment you're trying to tell me that _I'm_ causing a fuss over nothing? What _is it_ with you?"

Shishido turned to Ootori to get his support, but his chair was empty.

"He went to the kitchen, in case you've been arguing so much you haven't noticed," Atobe informed him, still pursing his lips.

Shishido ignored the comment.

"You know, you get so pissed off whenever someone mentions Yuu-chan, but you're always dragging your problems into everything, and I don't really care anymore what the hell you're pissed about, but stop taking it out on us," Shishido spat, pushing his chair back with a loud slide on the floor.

He felt almost stupid doing it, but enough was enough, and Atobe was driving him up the wall for no reason at all!

"You can't have it both ways, idiot," Shishido finished, keeping his arms crossed as he walked out of the room towards the kitchen.

A part of him felt incredibly stupid, because he realised he'd just done what Atobe had said he was doing; making a fuss out of nothing.

But it wasn't really nothing.

Not when it came to Ootori.

(S)

When Shishido had mentioned Yuu-chan, Atobe's first instinct was to yell back; to tell him not to talk about Yuuta, to tell him that he didn't know anything, to tell him that he didn't have any right to talk about Yuuta or about himself like that.

Then when Shishido had stomped out, Atobe had looked at Jirou, still asleep in the chair next to him, and he'd felt like an idiot.

He felt stupid raising his voice to Shishido, and he felt even worse for having done it in Ootori's house.

He knew Ootori's parents weren't home, but the maid had walked in a moment later, and Atobe had the sinking feeling in his stomach that she'd heard their yelling.

He didn't care if she'd heard him.

Not really anyway; she was just a maid after all, and she wouldn't tell anyone of importance.

But though he hadn't gotten as worked up as Shishido, he hadn't exactly maintained his self-control either, and he hadn't handled it as he should have. He may have been Atobe Keigo, but in a sense, that only gave him more reason to behave.

Captains weren't supposed to behave like that, even if Shishido was sometimes annoying, and even if Atobe was still annoyed with himself about the other day, and even if he'd been too ashamed of his own words to call Yuuta back…

Shishido was right, of course.

Atobe wasn't being fair.

The realisation hit Atobe hard and he got out of his chair, walking over to the large windows that faced the garden.

Atobe wasn't that familiar with Ootori's house, but the door to the garden opened easily when he pressed his hand down on the handle, and Atobe stepped out, leaving the door open behind him.

At least out in the garden, he didn't have Jirou sleeping next to him.

He knew he was being stupid about Yuuta.

He knew he was silly for letting Shishido get to him, and for being so harsh on Ootori for something so little.

He had known it even before he'd opened his mouth today, but he just couldn't help being frustrated and annoyed and feeling like for once, he wanted to have the freedom to act like the other boys on the team.

He wasn't about to say he regretted his position, or his parents' positions, because he knew just as much as the next person how many doors they had opened for him.

But still, the sense of frustration coursed through his body, making him want to grab a tennis racquet and ball, pull off his tie and just head for a court.

Maybe he was overreacting.

He could just call Yuuta and things would be normal, and it wasn't as though he hadn't argued with Shishido before. Everyone knew he could be a hothead, so it was probably better that they'd both gotten it out of their systems.

Ootori was as forgiving as Mother Teresa.

Atobe pulled out his phone, cringing as he listened to sound of the phone ringing on Yuuta's end.

It hadn't been that big a deal the other night, so perhaps he had been the only one who felt odd about it afterwards.

Maybe after all of that, he was the one making a fuss about nothing.

And suddenly he felt even stupider than before.

(S)

Shishido kicked Jirou under the table.

His foot only just reached and he didn't think it was a very strong kick because the table they were at was pretty wide, but Jirou opened his eyes nonetheless.

He yawned a little, eyes unfocused as he stared at the person who had kicked him.

"Did I miss anything important?"

Atobe looked unimpressed, as usual.

"One does tend to miss things by sleeping through meetings," he answered dryly.

"Only the whole meeting," Shishido answered, trying not to be quite so annoyed by Jirou.

Ootori walked back into the room, a tray in his hands.

Atobe raised an eyebrow slightly.

"What do you hire your maid for, Ootori? Decoration?"

Ootori smiled a little, and it sent a feeling of warmth through Shishido.

"I was in the kitchen and I do have legs and arms, you know, Atobe-buchou," Ootori answered.

Atobe sat back in his chair, looking at Ootori for a moment.

Shishido half expected him to pick an argument over it or say something downright rude at least, but he didn't say anything.

For a few seconds anyway.

"Well, hurry up then Ootori. Are you trying to starve your guests here?"

Shishido curled his hand into a fist under the table, pissed off all over again.

Ootori simply put down the tray and Shishido wanted to tell him to tell Atobe to get some manners already. He was a _guest_ in Ootori's house and he was acting like he owned it!

"Shishido-senpai," Ootori smiled.

"Huh?"

Shishido looked up at Ootori as he finished pouring out the fresh pot of tea.

The look on Ootori's face was making him feel more than a little guilty for yelling at the table before, even if Atobe had started it.

"Are you hungry?"

Ootori put down the teapot with a chink and held out a plate of biscuits.

Shishido shook his head, sitting back in his chair again, his appetite lost after the spat with Atobe.

"Are you sure?" Ootori asked.

Shishido thought he looked a bit dejected, but he didn't have a clue why.

"I'm not hungry," he answered, trying not to look at Atobe.

He'd only get pissed off again and then he'd feel bad for acting like an idiot around Ootori.

Two minutes later though, he couldn't _not_ look at Atobe any longer.

"Ootori," Atobe said blankly. "What exactly are these?"

Shishido looked across at him, watching him hold a biscuit between two fingers, staring at it as though it were something from outer space.

Ootori hardly blinked.

"Oh, I bought them from the Candy mart. I really like them."

Shishido had a funny feeling he knew what Atobe was holding, but just to be sure, he sat up again and pulled the plate of biscuits in front of him.

Hello Kitty faces stared back at him, and the smile crept onto his lips before he even realised he was grinning at a plateful of biscuits.

"What's so funny?" Atobe demanded quickly, and Shishido looked up at him, just annoyed enough to give him a scowl.

"Nothing apparently, since you're still acting like you have a stick up your arse."

"I am not!"

Shishido gave a snort.

"Oh really?" he asked nonchalantly, feeling like he'd finally gotten one over Atobe.

Sure, it was childish and he was doing it right under Ootori's nose and feeling just a little guilty for it, but Atobe was Atobe and there was a lot of satisfaction in getting him to look like the loser for once.

Honestly, he was being so prissy over a biscuit.

"If you're not going to eat that, then give it to someone who will," Shishido demanded, sticking out his hand.

Not that he really intended to eat something Atobe had been holding for a whole two minutes, but he knew how Atobe's head worked.

"I've heard that commoners are very into recycling, you know, but I'm sure Ootori's not so poor that he can't give you a new biscuit, Shishido," Atobe said, rolling his eyes slightly.

Shishido grabbed a biscuit off the plate, stuffing it into his mouth at once and chewing it.

"Fine," he grumbled, when he had swallowed it somewhat hastily and nearly choked on a stray crumb.

He took a gulp of his tea, even though it was hot enough that his eyes wanted to water, and by the time he'd blinked a couple of times and finished feeling like there was something stuck in his throat, he realised that Atobe's biscuit had disappeared.

"This tastes like artificial strawberry flavouring," Atobe observed. "Who on earth would want to eat this sort of thing? It tastes like something you'd feed to a _dog_."

Shishido bristled, about to defend his choice in food when Ootori did it instead.

Under the table their hands bumped, not quite accidentally.

"I like them," Ootori declared a little loudly. "True, they're probably not to everyone's taste, but I think they're kind of cool."

Atobe looked amused, raising an eyebrow.

"_Cool_?" he repeated, shaking his head slightly. "You're going to need a better adjective than that to convince me."

Jirou was asleep again by the time they'd finished their snacks and cups of tea, and Shishido was almost going to let Atobe off on the fact that he'd actually eaten three biscuits when he'd said he wasn't going to eat any…

But then Atobe and Shishido reached for the last biscuit at the same time and half of it was in Atobe's mouth before it even occurred to Shishido that it was off the plate.

Shishido glared across the table.

"I suppose they're not entirely inedible," Atobe declared. "Where did you say you bought them again, Ootori?"

Ootori gave a smile.

After Atobe and Jirou left, Ootori dragged Shishido to the kitchen to show him the huge bulk box he'd bought.

Forty-eight packets of sugary, imitation strawberry and vanilla flavour biscuits.

"Why'd you buy so many?" Shishido asked, a little dumbfounded.

He knew he liked them, but he hadn't realised Ootori really liked them that much.

Ootori's hand brushed his slightly as he stepped closer, pushing Shishido against the counter.

"Well, I thought maybe you'd want to eat them…" Ootori explained. "Er… When you come over, of course," he grinned.

Shishido wondered how many visits Ootori thought forty-eight packets of biscuits would last them.

Not that he wouldn't have come to see Ootori without the incentive.

Ootori's mouth tasted like vanilla and sugar when they kissed; a kind of déjà vu for them both, but Shishido thought he wouldn't mind getting used to it.

(S)

Mizuki held out a pair of shoes to Yuuta, tilting his head slightly at the lack of response on his team mate's face.

When he'd asked Yuuta to come shopping with him after practice, Mizuki had expected a frown and a suspicious sort of look, and a whole barrage of questions and protests.

In fact, Yuuta had been suspiciously easy to convince.

Mizuki had an inkling it had something to do with Atobe, but he wasn't about to ask.

He had no desire to see that annoying look on Yuuta's face whenever Atobe was mentioned, nor did he want to hear anything should Yuuta choose to confide in him.

In fact, he wouldn't have minded forgetting that Atobe ever existed because it was one thing to have a rival, and entirely another to have a rival to whom you had lost so easily.

Still, he was glad he hadn't had to drag Yuuta out.

It would have wasted precious time they didn't have, and considering the fact that today was Tuesday, they would have to be back in time for dinner or they'd either go hungry or be punished somehow.

Akazawa had ended up coming along too somehow, and then because Akazawa was coming, Kaneda came as well.

Walking into the shoe shop Mizuki had wanted to visit, Akazawa had made a beeline for the sneakers, which was perfectly fine with Mizuki because Kaneda had followed Akazawa which had left him Yuuta and a wall full of shoes he wanted to try on.

"Do you actually have a personal preference, or are you just employing a method of random selection?" Mizuki demanded, after Yuuta had pointed his finger at the same pair of shoes thrice; the first time when Mizuki had asked him which pair he liked, the second time because Mizuki had demanded to know which was his least favourite of the group, and the third time because Mizuki wanted to know which ones made his ankles look better.

"They're all shoes to me," Yuuta finally said, rolling his eyes a little. "Really, Mizuki-san, can't you just buy a pair?"

Mizuki frowned.

"No I cannot 'just buy a pair'," he scolded, slightly annoyed.

He knew shoe shopping wasn't Yuuta's favourite pastime, but that didn't mean he couldn't just fake a little enthusiasm or pay just a little more attention.

"Really Yuuta, if you'd look closely, you'd see that these two pairs of shoes are entirely different," Mizuki lectured.

He had a funny feeling his words were going in one ear and out the other, but he was determined to prove his point.

Even Akazawa or Kaneda would have given more constructive feedback than what Yuuta was giving with his random pointing and 'can-we-leave-yet?' looks at the door.

Mizuki huffed when he caught Yuuta looking at the door again, but the words on the tip of his tongue, he ended up swallowing in surprise.

It was Oshitari Yuushi and Mukahi Gakuto who walked in.

.tbc.


	11. Chapter 10

Archive: NO. 

**About Us**

Chapter 10

By Miki

"I still think the only way is to get Atobe's phone," Gakuto grumbled, pausing in his complaints to take a loud slurp of his drink.

Oshitari snorted, not for the first time feeling as though this conversation was going around in circles. In part, he couldn't really blame Gakuto for his curiosity, but he suspected some of it was purely born out of a want to get back at Atobe for all the extra laps and punishments they'd endured over the past few weeks.

He had to admit that the more Atobe acted strangely, the more intriguing he found the whole thing. That, and supervising the first years while they dropped buckets and baskets of tennis balls all over the floor hadn't exactly been his idea of fun. He didn't want to get stuck with that duty again the next time a cleanup was due.

"What's so good about Atobe anyway?" Gakuto grumbled, playing with his Styrofoam cup.

Oshitari shook his head, following Gakuto into the sports mega-store they'd become so used to frequenting.

"I mean, seriously, do you think they even _do_ stuff together?"

Oshitari stopped walking just in front of the sliding glass doors. "_Do_ stuff?" he repeated, half amused.

Gakuto gave him a nonchalant look. "Yeah, you know… Things that adults do," he said vaguely, slurping his drink again.

It was some kind of berry and yoghurt concoction, and Oshitari was almost tempted to ask Gakuto if he could try just a little bit before it was all completely gone.

He gave Gakuto a bit of a sideways look at his words, and shook his head, stepping further into the shop before people could complain about the doorway being blocked.

"I don't know…" Oshitari answered slowly.

He hadn't actually thought that far ahead, though sitting at a restaurant table was about as much as he could imagine Yumiko and Atobe doing together, which made him think that any relationship between Yumiko and Atobe seemed just almost as unlikely to him as it was that tomorrow Gakuto would declare himself Shishido's best friend and start stalking him at lunchtime.

When he thought about the fact that Jirou had said something about Fuji Yumiko being twenty-four or thereabouts, and the fact that Atobe was only fourteen… the resulting mental images made his stomach turn in funny ways.

"They're not dating," he declared loudly, trying to convince himself of the fact, even though he still couldn't understand why else Atobe would be at Fuji's house, when they both knew that Fuji hadn't been there. "It's not as though she could be serious about him, could she?"

Gakuto kept sipping at his drink. "I don't know. I don't think Atobe could be serious about girls anyway. It's not like he has time, does he?"

Oshitari nodded his assent, the both of them suddenly changing their minds completely. "It's not like they have to be dating anyway, right?" Gakuto said, and Oshitari nodded again.

Neither of them could actually think up any other reason for Yumiko and Atobe to be seeing each other though, so they left the conversation hanging on an awkward thread as Oshitari examined the shoes on the wall and Gakuto slurped some more at his drink.

"What about these?" Oshitari picked up a pair of sneakers, checking the price on the sole of the shoes.

"Cheap," was Gakuto's reply, wrinkling his nose at the leather.

Oshitari smirked a little at the characteristic reply, watching as Gakuto picked up a pair of red Nikes, holding them out in front of him. He suspected it hadn't occurred in Gakuto's head that if he wore read sneakers, people might have trouble telling exactly when he was the right way up on court.

"Hey… Yuushi," Gakuto's voice interrupted his examination of another pair of sneakers.

Oshitari looked at sideways at him.

"What else are they doing though if they're not dating? I mean, Atobe even takes her phone calls when we're at practice, so he has to like her a bit, right? He even turned down Jirou for ice cream the other day, and I bet that was for her as well, don't you think?"

Oshitari sighed. He couldn't help but swing between insatiable curiosity and absolute apathy when it came to Atobe and Yuu-chan, but spending so much time with someone who seemed to think he couldn't rest until he reached the end of the case wasn't doing much for his mental health.

"I wonder if Atobe's seen her with her clothes off," Gakuto said suddenly, loud enough that Oshitari almost instinctively clapped his hand over his friend's mouth.

"She'd be pretty hot, don't you think?"

Oshitari looked around them hurriedly, hoping no one had heard. They were in the shoe section of the store and it wasn't as though it was crowded today. A couple of girls looked over at them, looking unimpressed.

Gakuto was thoughtful for a moment. "You know, Atobe was pretty damn happy the other week, wasn't he? I bet they did it already."

"She's…" Oshitari cleared his throat and tried to keep his voice low. "She probably…"

Somehow the words were just too embarrassing to say, so he looked sideways. "I guess there's a chance."

Gakuto eyed him. "Wouldn't that be illegal though?"

Oshitari rolled his eyes slightly, embarrassed. Personally, he was curious, but talking about it with Gakuto was making his skin crawl. There was something about the way Gakuto said things that just made the topic feel odd.

The girls were staring again, so he avoided meeting their eyes, trying to put a look of nonchalance back on his face again, but as he looked around the store, realising that it was just a little busier than it had been when they'd come in, his eyes fell back upon a familiar face.

He tilted his head slightly.

Gakuto was sucking a long sip of his drink when Oshitari banged his hand into his shoulder. "Gakuto, isn't that Fuji Syuusuke's brother?"

Gakuto looked up, expecting Oshitari to be wrong. They didn't really know Fuji's brother well, and chances were that Oshitari was just getting the wrong guy. After all, from what Gakuto could remember, the guy didn't actually look that much like Fuji Syuusuke or Yumiko. He was always frowning, for a start, and he had a weird scar on his head like he'd run into a wall.

Gakuto kept slurping on his drink until the boy turned around, just momentarily glancing their way. Then his hands froze holding his cup.

He forgot to swallow for a moment and all of a sudden, there was liquid going down the back of his throat, going down the _wrong way_.

He coughed, his eyes squeezing closed as he let go of his cup and tried to cover his mouth instead.

And by the time Oshitari had finished patting his back and he'd finished nearly dying, Fuji's younger brother was nowhere in sight.

Oshitari looked at the cup in his spare hand. He'd managed to catch it before it fell on the floor and they had to pay carpet cleaning bills, but that didn't make him feel much better about the fact that he was holding a cup covered in sticky blueberry and spit mess.

He'd wanted to try Gakuto's drink, but not in this manner.

Gakuto didn't even look slightly apologetic.

"_What_ were you doing to my back, Yuushi?" he snapped loudly. "You think you hit me _hard enough_?"

A moment later, he dissolved into coughs again and Oshitari sighed. He pulled out a tissue from his pocket, watching as one of the staff ran over, looking concerned.

"I think he heard," Gakuto rasped out, still coughing.

Oshitari had a sinking feeling that Gakuto was right. He patted Gakuto's back a few more times until Gakuto started glaring at him because "damn it! That hurts, Yuushi!"

Oshitari had once heard that anyone who messed with Fuji's brother met with unfortunate circumstances, but he really hoped the same didn't apply to his sister as well.

(S)

"Yuuta, wait!"

"Yuuta!" Mizuki called out again, jogging to catch up to him. He managed to catch Yuuta's sleeve, yanking him back to face him as he caught his breath. "Where are you going? I thought you said you'd go shopping with me."

"Yeah? So what? You can still go shopping by yourself," Yuuta glared back.

His chest felt tight and his eyes dry and sore. He could feel the emotions beginning to rise in his chest, and before he knew it, he was sniffing, trying not to let his nose run.

Mizuki looked incensed, but Yuuta ignored the indignation on his face as he grabbed his manager's wrist and pulled him along the footpath.

"Sorry," he mumbled, trying not to look Mizuki in the face.

Mizuki snorted a little and Yuuta knew he was even more annoyed.

He swallowed against the tightness in his throat, telling himself he was being stupid. He was just being paranoid. It wasn't as though he'd even heard their whole conversation, was it? At least, he didn't think so…

But he'd heard enough.

He'd been wondering about Atobe; worrying and thinking about the same things over and over, and half of him wanted to believe he was just over-analysing and the other half was playing Gakuto's words on repeat.

Atobe… had a girlfriend.

Or at least… someone he liked.

Someone who wasn't Yuuta.

He wondered for a moment if they were wrong; if they were just gossiping or making things up, but then… Atobe was their captain. It wasn't as though Atobe was someone who happened to go to the same school as their friend's friend's sister's best friend's cousin or anything. Gakuto and Oshitari saw him nearly every day and they probably knew Atobe better than he did, Yuuta thought.

Then a moment later, he glanced at Mizuki and realised that it would be stupid if they didn't know their captain better than he did.

Yuuta wondered if he really knew anything about Atobe at all.

His heart lurched in his chest as Mizuki spoke.

"Here."

Mizuki held a packet of tissues out to Yuuta, avoiding meeting his eyes as Yuuta pushed them back at him.

"I don't… Why would I need those?" he scowled.

They walked the rest of the way back to the dorms without talking to each other.

Tears stung at Yuuta's eyes.

He blinked them back.

(S)

Mizuki wasn't quite sure what had set Yuuta off.

He'd only really heard the last few lines of Gakuto and Oshitari's conversation since his interest in a pair of sneakers had gone from feigned to genuine when he'd discovered they were limited editions and just happened to come in pink as well. Only Gakuto's loud voice had caught his attention, and by then, Yuuta was practically dragging him out of the shop, barely giving him enough time to put the shoe back on the shelf before someone tried to accuse them of shoplifting.

He sat back on his bed, crossing one leg over the other and rotating his foot one way and then the other. His body felt tense and his thoughts kept returning to Yuuta no matter how he tried to think of other things. His training plans for the next week sat neglected on the floor, and he sat up and stared down at them.

Yuuta's was unfinished.

Mizuki felt distinctly discontent and he pursed his lips as he bent over to pick it up, retrieving his pencil and immediately drawing up changes.

There was no satisfaction to be found in tweaking Akazawa's, Atsushi's or Yanagisawa's plans any further though, and there was only so much time Mizuki could spend thinking about Yuuta before he decided things had to be done. Atobe was clearly distracting Yuuta and though Mizuki had thought Yuuta would be able to settle things himself, it clearly wasn't happening.

Yuuta wasn't exactly what Mizuki would call a 'people person' after all.

At times like these, he thought, it took someone with obvious charm, wit, skill and planning to work these sorts of problems through. And if that failed, there was always the option of divesting oneself of the problem entirely. Clearly, it was a job only Mizuki could do.

(S)

Akazawa didn't exactly look impressed.

Atsushi sipped on his lemonade.

Yanagisawa tried not to fidget.

And Mizuki tried to ignore the fact that he'd called an emergency meeting and now that he was looking at the three boys in front of him, he had no idea what had prompted him to think this would be even remotely useful, given that the three of them were looking at him with expressions almost stupid enough to rival Momoshiro of Seigaku and Atsushi was… slurping.

Didn't he have any manners?

For crying out loud! Yuuta was bad enough lately, but did Mizuki have to be surrounded by idiots? He shot Atsushi a look, which only ceased his slurping for two seconds before he started again.

"So why are we here, da ne?" Yanagisawa questioned, and Atsushi's slurping continued.

"Are you sure you need us all here to discuss Yuuta?" Akazawa asked, giving Mizuki the distinct impression that he thought this was a waste of time.

The look on his face was almost disapproving too, and for a moment Mizuki faltered in his reply. "Of course," he said, once he'd worked out what his plan of attack would be. Maybe he was overreacting, but Yuuta was Yuuta, and Mizuki didn't think it was beyond his call of duty as his manager to call meetings like these. Besides, when he looked at the teddy bears on Akazawa's pyjamas and the ducks on Atsushi's, he almost thought it was worth it for the entertainment value alone.

His own clothes were freshly washed and ironed and smelt of lavender, just as they should.

"The point is," he started, pulling his whiteboard closer and uncapping his pen, "as you're all aware, Yuuta hasn't quite been himself lately."

Atsushi thought that was stating the obvious.

The reaction wasn't quite the one that Mizuki had wanted, though he had to admit it wasn't exactly an earth-shattering statement. He paused. Then he wiped off the text on his whiteboard and pulled out a blue pen – he owned whiteboard markers in every colour of the rainbow, of course, for colour coordination – and drew a figure in blue on one side of the board.

Then, deciding its head wasn't big enough, he scribbled a larger poof of hair on its head and drew a dot under one eye.

"This is specimen A," he pointed out tersely, "aka Atobe Kei-"

"_That's_ Atobe?" Yanagisawa blurted out loudly. "What does Atobe have to do with this, da ne? I thought this was about Yuuta da ne."

Mizuki gave him a smug look. Now this was a little more like it.

He pulled out a brown marker and drew Yuuta on the other side of the board, making sure to draw his hair appropriately and draw a frown on his face.

"Mizuki," Akazawa interrupted, putting his hand to his temple. "I'm not sure that this is going to be beneficial to either Yuuta or us so… Don't you think it would be better for Yuuta to just work things out himself?"

Mizuki gave him an irritated look. "He's had his chance to work things out himself," he snapped.

Akazawa didn't really like the way Mizuki was going about dealing with the issue, but Mizuki did have a point in some respects. Allowing Yuuta to simply mope and take his mood swings out of his team mates wasn't exactly conducive to training. He wasn't sure how far Mizuki was going to explain things to Yanagisawa and Atsushi, but he trusted Mizuki to know where to draw the line. There were things that were meant to be private, after all.

"Okay," Mizuki huffed, finishing drawing on Yutua's shorts – one couldn't have his stick figure naked after all. Not when Atobe was on the other side of the board.

Atsushi removed his mouth from his straw. "So… what does Atobe have to do with Yuuta?" he questioned.

Mizuki faltered a little. He hadn't considered the possibility that he'd have to explain everything to Atsushi. He suspected Akazawa knew the gist of the situation and Yanagisawa ought to at least have a clue, but it was true he'd called Atsushi in with Yanagisawa without stopping to think about whether Yuuta would have told him anything or not.

Yuuta was pretty private when it came to matters like this, so chances were that only Mizuki really knew the whole story.

Or rather, as much of it as Yuuta was willing to tell anyone else.

He wondered if he ought to have formulated his plan just a little more thoroughly before calling the meeting – contingency planning being rather a lot harder when he didn't really know where Atsushi and Yanagisawa stood on this.

"Does Yuuta know Atobe well, da ne?" Yanagisawa asked.

Atsushi turned to him, giving him an odd look. "Yuuta and… Atobe Keigo?"

Yanagisawa nodded his head, feeling privileged. "Yup da ne. Yuuta's even been to his house, da ne. But what do you think they actually do with each other, da ne?"

Mizuki twitched.

"It's kind of weird, isn't it, da ne? I mean, they didn't know each other before, did they? If Yuuta's been to Atobe's house, that must mean they're pretty friendly, da ne?"

Mizuki didn't even stop to ask Yanagisawa how he knew all of that. "Well, yes," he snapped. "You have to be pretty friendly with someone to want to snog him," he frowned.

He felt a lot better having said that, and the silence in the room was more conducive to coherent thought than the sound of Atsushi slurping at his drink, so he returned to his thoughts of how to get Atsushi, Yanagisawa and Akazawa to help Yuuta without making their meddling seem obvious.

Atsushi was a trustworthy boy. He was sure Yuuta wouldn't mind if he had half a clue about what was going on, even if Mizuki himself wasn't perfectly clear on everything. That Yuuta and Atobe both suffered from stubbornness and stupidity was clear enough, but as for the rest of it…

Mizuki wondered if Akazawa had any suggestions and looked up at him.

He blinked at the silence, wondering why Yanagisawa was so quiet. What had he been saying before anyway?

Mizuki had already forgotten what they'd been saying two minutes before, though Yanagisawa had been talking about how Yuuta had gone to Atobe's house, hadn't he?

And then Mizuki had said…

He curled a strand of hair around his finger, trying to recall exactly what he'd said.

Oh.

_Oh. _

_Shit. _

He glanced at Akazawa once more, but the expression on his face only confirmed the sinking feeling in Mizuki's stomach.

"A-Atobe and Yuu-Yuuta?" Yanagisawa asked, being the first to break the silence.

He looked shell shocked. Atsushi looked surprised for a moment too, but then he ducked his head so Mizuki couldn't read his expression.

"Are you sure, da ne? I mean… That's not… They're both…"

Atsushi played with his straw for a moment. "And?" he questioned, tilting his head a little in curiosity.

Yanagisawa swallowed hard. "Well, isn't it kind of…" He trailed off, looking around.

Mizuki wondered if that meant the meeting was a wrap.

When Yanagisawa spoke again five minutes later, Mizuki decided that yes, he'd had enough of them for the moment and he'd have to call them to meet again once he'd really thought things through. He couldn't help but feel annoyed at himself for not having anticipated that things would turn out this way without a lack of planning. He couldn't remember the last time he'd conducted any sort of meeting at all without at least having mapped things out first, but lately when it came to Yuuta, he was just… not quite himself.

"Yuuta and Atobe, da ne."

Silence reigned.

"Atobe has grey hair, da ne. I wonder if he's grey all over, da ne."

Atsushi snorted and took a slurp of his drink. "Wouldn't you like to know?"

"I bet Yuuta knows, da ne."

Mizuki twitched. He rather hoped Yuuta didn't.

.tbc.


	12. Chapter 11

Archive: No.

Reviews: ...?

**About Us**

Chapter 11

By Miki

Atobe couldn't put his finger on it. It was an odd feeling to say the least; the feeling that _something_ wasn't quite right but he had no idea exactly what it was or why it wasn't right.

He pulled his knees up to his chest and shivered a little. The water in the bath tub was starting to cool down even though he didn't feel as though he'd been in there a long time. The wrinkles on his fingers suggested otherwise though.

He closed his eyes, thinking over his list of things to do and adding more items to it as he remembered things Sakaki had mentioned and things Kabaji had reminded him of.

He opened his eyes and stared at his hands, wondering if he should call Yuuta tonight or not. It was already Tuesday again, and the longer he left it, the worse he felt. Besides, he had a feeling Yuuta wasn't about to call him first.

(S)

Yanagisawa's feet felt just a little bit sore. Mizuki had assigned he and Atsushi fifty shuttle runs each, but Yanagisawa's attention had been more focused on staring at Yuuta than staring at where he'd been going, and he'd ended up falling over a rock that had strayed onto the ground in front of him. Atsushi had pointed out that it wasn't a 'stray' rock, since it wasn't as though there were rules as to where rocks were allowed to go or not allowed to go.

Yanagisawa secretly thought he was just being annoying because he was just as annoyed about running like this. The court they'd been playing on had been overtaken by Akazawa, Mizuki, Yuuta and Nomura and Kaneda was playing a doubles match with some of the other second year students.

"I still think it's weird, da ne. What do you think about it, da ne? I mean, it's Atobe we're talking about, da ne. Isn't he a bit annoying, da ne?"

Atsushi shot him a look as they ran side by side. Sometimes he wondered if Yanagisawa didn't get a good work out just running and talking to himself.

"I thought it was weird enough that Yuuta even liked Atobe at all, but it's different if they're actually _together_, da ne…"

Atsushi ignored the monologue going on beside him. It wasn't that he was any less surprised about what Mizuki had said, but he didn't need to stick his nose into other people's business… Besides, he wasn't as close to Yuuta as Mizuki was, and if Mizuki didn't even know everything – and it looked as though no one did, really – then Atsushi wasn't exactly expecting Yuuta to tell him anything either. It didn't mean he wasn't curious though.

"I just don't get it, da ne," Yanagisawa continued. "I just… I mean, they're both guys. It's not like Yuuta's even good-looking like his brother, da ne. And he's always grumpy da ne."

Yanagisawa was still going on about it as they warmed down ten minutes later when Atsushi finally snapped.

He couldn't understand Yuuta liking Atobe, and he had no idea what Atobe must have been on when he even conceived the idea of dating Yuuta, and he was still wondering if Mizuki had made it all up because Mizuki managed to make up a lot of other things, but if it was true, then it was true and it was none of their business to judge Yuuta or Atobe or anything they did.

He knew Yanagisawa didn't mean badly, but the fact that he'd been rambling about it almost incessantly since this morning was unnerving Atsushi, and he wasn't sure that some of the other players weren't listening in to what Yanagisawa was blurting out.

"Is there something wrong with girls, da ne?" Yanagisawa questioned, looking genuinely lost. He looked exasperated even.

Atsushi suspected he was just digging himself further into a hole, so he turned Yanagisawa to face him, clasped his shoulders with his hands and told him to shut up. "Da ne."

Looking at Yanagisawa's expression, he wondered if he hadn't just been waiting for it anyway.

(S)

Yuuta stared at Yanagisawa. "Huh?" he asked, rubbing at his hair awkwardly. "What did you say?"

Yanagisawa gave him a funny look.

"Since we're going anyway, don't you want to come with us?" Atsushi asked, peering past his doubles partner, looking into Yuuta's room.

Yuuta shifted a little, stepping in front of Atsushi so he couldn't see the mess. Or at least… some of it. It was kind of hard to hide a week's worth of dirty underwear and school shirts though, and on top of that – or rather… underneath it – there were also all the books Yuuta still hadn't given back to Atobe.

He'd been going through the books an hour before but he'd left them in a mess over the floor instead of stacking them, and then Mizuki had walked in and declared that Yuuta was about to miss the washing collection for the week and suddenly socks and boxers and shorts had joined the mess on the floor, and now the room was looking something akin to a nuclear waste dump.

Yuuta's washing collection bag was still somewhere under his bed too, and he hadn't found that either. Sometimes he wondered if it wasn't a downside that everything in the dorm was labelled so clearly. It meant he couldn't just go and take Kaneda's washing bag and hope he didn't notice for a while.

"You're not doing anything with anyone else, da ne. Are you, da ne?" Yanagisawa asked loudly, frowning a bit.

Yuuta blinked, racking his brains to remember what day it was and why he would be going anywhere else. He shook his head in response. "Why would I?"

He'd only put in one or two leave slips in the past week, and it wasn't even as though he'd gone anywhere important. It was times like these that he wondered why he even bothered keeping a diary, except to remember to write in homework on the odd occasion to fill up the space. Yanagisawa and Atsushi often went out to the street courts or to the movies by themselves, so Yuuta couldn't quite make up his mind why they were asking him now. He wasn't sure he could put up with the 'da ne's today anyway.

Yanagisawa was silent though, pursing his lips instead of answering Yuuta's question. He looked a little odd being so serious, though Yuuta didn't think they'd had any run-ins at training lately, so it couldn't have been something he'd done. He hadn't even smacked any tennis balls Yanagisawa's way that morning and they'd been assigned to different activities anyway.

Maybe Yanagisawa just wasn't feeling himself so that's why Atsushi was asking him for extra company, Yuuta thought.

"Anyway," Atsushi said loudly, "want me to put in a form for you? We're leaving in twenty minutes if you're coming."

Yuuta stared sideways at the grain of the wooden door frame, unable to decide either way. He could go to the movies with them and it would pass two hours, though that would mean he'd probably be in Mizuki's bad books for not sticking around to be here at dinner time…

Alternately, he could actually clean up his room, do his homework and turn up to dinner in time to not be stuck with the servings of leftover peas no one wanted to eat.

"Okay, I'll come," he agreed. "You can fill in my form, can't you?"

Atsushi nodded. "Sure. We'll meet downstairs in twenty minutes then," he said, and put his hands on Yanagisawa's shoulders, steering him out of Yuuta's doorway so he could close the door.

Yuuta stared after the two of them. Then he closed the door and leaned against it, staring at the mess strewn across his floor. He really hated cleaning his room, but the less often he cleaned it, the more times he was scolded by Mizuki and the more times he got stupid yellow slips stuck on his door by Hanashima.

Sometimes it really sucked living in a dorm. Especially when you couldn't find your stupid laundry bag and you were about to run out of clean underwear.

(S)

"Wait, I just want to go in here for a minute," Atsushi called out, grabbing Yanagisawa's arm and yanking him backwards.

Yanagisawa stumbled back, waving his spare arm around and grabbing Yuuta before he could step out of the way.

He ended up stumbling backwards too, only saved from falling over by himself by the fact that he banged into Yanagisawa, who banged into Atsushi, who was pushed into the shop door right before it slid open, sending the three of them sprawling in a very undignified manner right into the middle of the shop.

Yuuta felt that sinking feeling in his stomach as he realised it was the same store Mizuki had dragged him to the other day, and he almost wanted to ask if he couldn't just walk back to the dormitory first by himself.

He glanced around the store, but luckily there were no Hyoutei uniforms in sight today. It hardly made him feel any better though.

The movie they'd just seen already forgotten, he fiddled with a sweat band absentmindedly as Yanagisawa tried to convince Atsushi of the merits of buying a red wrist band to match his ribbon.

It was nearly a week since he'd last spoken to Atobe, wasn't it? Or did it just feel that long? Walking back over to the shoe section where he'd been with Mizuki the other day, he counted the steps to the spot where Gakuto and Oshitari had been standing. Then he walked back and did it again.

He pulled his phone from his pocket, half-tuned into the squabbling now coming from Atsushi and Yanagisawa's direction. His phone's call history said Atobe had called him on Thursday night, and there was no way his phone could by lying. He closed it for a moment, and then opened it and checked it again.

There was a new message sitting there in his inbox; something he hadn't noticed when he'd turned his phone back on after the movie. His thumb hovered above the green button for a moment before he finally clicked it, watching the animation of the message opening on screen.

It was from Atobe. Yuuta scanned it quickly, disappointed when he scrolled down and realised there were only two lines to Atobe's message.

_Are you free tomorrow night? I've made reservations for dinner._

Yuuta frowned at it, biting back the annoyance he felt. Who did Atobe think he was to not call him for half a week and totally ignore him and then send something so… so…

Yuuta rolled his eyes up to the ceiling. He frowned, annoyed at Atobe and annoyed at himself and annoyed because Atobe was obviously acting as though he hadn't done anything wrong. He could at least give a half-arsed apology or something, not that Atobe ever apologised.

Yuuta checked his call history again. It definitely said Thursday.

Yuuta huffed for a moment, once again annoyed about Gakuto and Oshitari and Atobe and every stupid Hyoutei student on the planet. He was sick of not knowing where he stood with Atobe and it didn't help that he couldn't ask anyone for help either. His brother was out of the question, as was his sister, and it wasn't as though he could just… just _tell things_ to Mizuki.

Then he scrolled across the screen to his dialled numbers and flicked down the list. Not seeing Atobe's number, he scrolled further down the list, past Kaneda's number and Mizuki's number, past Yumiko's and Syuusuke's and his father's and his home telephone number… And he realised that the last time he'd called Atobe's number was actually… a week and a half ago.

He bit the inside of his lip suddenly, not knowing what to think. Hadn't he called Atobe during the week? He tried to remember if he ever had, but when he thought about it, all the times he'd fiddled with his phone or scrolled through his address book, he'd ended up not calling at all…

All he'd done was to change his wallpaper about ten times, write useless messages to his brother, change his colour scheme and the order of his speed dial numbers and generally… not get anywhere with the calling Atobe part.

"Yuuta," Atsushi said loudly, startling him as he pulled his phone away from him. "Are you okay?"

Yuuta panicked, his heart in his throat until he snatched his phone back and snapped it shut. He shoved it as far into his pocket as it would go and gave Atsushi an annoyed look. "Fine," he answered.

"Just asking," Atsushi said in his defence, giving a slight smile. "I thought you were…"

Yuuta frowned. "Thought I was what?"

Yanagisawa rolled his eyes at Atsushi, and Yuuta realised then that they were keeping something from him. He didn't have a chance to find out what it was though, since Yanagisawa wanted to hear his opinion on Atsushi's choice of wristbands. The red ones looked orange and they wouldn't match his ribbon properly and the black ones just weren't right somehow. The white ones were too cheap and the blue ones wouldn't match their uniforms when they played, da ne.

Yuuta pulled the bunch from Yanagisawa's hands, shoving all of them but the white one onto one of the shelves behind him. He handed the white one back to Atsushi and wondered why it hadn't occurred to him before.

He felt stupid. He honestly felt stupid. "I'm just going to wait outside, okay?" he said.

Neither Yanagisawa nor Atsushi really gave him a response, going back to their discussion about wristbands.

"But don't you think the white one is boring, da ne?"

Atsushi sighed. "Well then, what's wrong with the red one?"

Yanagisawa shook his head. "You'd have to stick the white one into the wash a lot too, since you sweat so much."

Atsushi looked insulted. "I do not!" he retorted quickly, snatching back the wristband. "There's nothing wrong with white on me."

Yanagisawa snatched it back. "You do too! You sweat more than me, da ne!"

Atsushi snatched the band back. "And why do you care anyway?"

Yanagisawa reached for the band again but Atsushi held it above his head, frowning. "Because if you don't wash it all the time, then it will be yellow before you know it and then you might as well buy a yellow one, da ne."

Yuuta pulled a face as he walked out of the store. Honestly, he thought sometimes that they acted like they were in a bubble. They didn't notice people around them and they argued like idiots. Sometimes he wondered how they could stand each other, but it wasn't as though they didn't make up for their arguments. Besides, if Atsushi didn't put up with the 'da ne's all the time, who else would?

Yuuta pulled his phone out of his pocket again, re-reading Atobe's message. Yumiko had told him once he ought to think before he acted. She'd told him a lot of other things too, though for the most part, he discarded whatever she said because… well… Listening to his big sister was annoying. Still…

Yuuta exited Atobe's message and scrolled back down his inbox, looking for one that Atobe had sent a while ago. He found it quickly. Most of the messages from Syuusuke were the ones he deleted first, so Atobe's messages sat in clumps, only broken by the occasional one from Mizuki or from his sister. The one Atobe had sent him the night before Yuuta had gone to his house was still in his inbox; the last of their odd conversation for the night. Yuuta read it once and snapped his phone shut.

Gakuto and Oshitari's words were still stuck in his head, and he knew he wasn't going to feel better about them until he actually talked to Atobe, but he was going to talk to Atobe.

Atsushi and Yanagisawa came out of the sports store then and the three of them walked back to St Rudolph together.

"Did something happen?" Atsushi asked him as they walked.

Yuuta shook his head quickly. "Why?" he asked quickly.

Atsushi shrugged. "No reason."

Yuuta returned his shrug. He'd been worrying over nothing. Or at least, he hoped he'd been worrying over nothing.

.tbc.


	13. Chapter 12

Notes: Multiple chapters today because they're short and because otherwise I'll forget to update. XD

Archive: No.

Reviews: ... I don't know what to write here anymore XD

**About Us**

Chapter 12

By Miki

"Yuuta!"

Yuuta spun around on his heel, turning towards the sound of Mizuki's voice and seeing his manager stalking across the lobby floor to see him. "Er… Yes?" he asked, wondering what he could have done.

"Sign this," Mizuki demanded, pushing a piece of paper at him and putting his hands on his hips.

Yuuta stared down at the page Mizuki had handed him. It was a leave slip, already filled in for Friday night. He shifted on the spot, wishing he'd already written back to Atobe's message and wishing he hadn't decided to call instead.

Behind him, Atsushi and Yanagisawa strolled back into the lobby. "Hey Yuuta, you signed in already?" Atsushi asked.

Yuuta turned around and nodded.

"It's a team bonding exercise," Mizuki interrupted, putting his hands on Yuuta's cheeks and turning him back to look at him. "I expect you there."

Yuuta winced, watching as Mizuki delivered leave slips to Atsushi and Yanagisawa as well, disappearing off down the hallway behind the office.

"What's this, da ne?" Yanagisawa questioned, his eyes quickly scanning the text. "Paint balling, da ne? That sounds painful, da ne."

Atsushi looked just as apprehensive, but Yuuta noted the way he turned around and used the front desk pen to sign his name at the bottom of the form.

Yuuta stared at his own form, feeling sorry for himself and wondering why things turned out like this. He guessed he could ask Atobe if he could go out on Saturday night instead, but he'd been thinking – even if he'd told his brother no, the last time he'd asked – that he might go home for the weekend again. Sometimes he just missed the privacy of his own room compared to the busyness and the constant noise and commotion of the dormitory here.

"I bet we'll come out with bruises, da ne," Yanagisawa stated, taking the pen from Atsushi and signing his form too. "Hey, Yuuta, you have to come too, da ne. I'm not going and getting shot at if you're not, da ne."

Atsushi stared at Yuuta until he sighed, resigning himself to bruises on his body and paint in his hair. He guessed there really wasn't a way out of it, even if he had already messaged Atobe back about tomorrow. He didn't know why Mizuki thought they needed more team bonding, but he was their manager after all, and it wasn't as though just because they'd missed nationals this year, they wouldn't be a team after next year. Of course, the third years wouldn't be here anymore, but Yuuta would be. He'd probably end up playing Mizuki's and Akazawa's roles next year, and maybe it wasn't such a bad thing to practise now.

He dutifully took the pen from Yanagisawa and signed his form, noting that they'd be back late. Perhaps it was the fact that they hadn't gotten into nationals which had spurred on Mizuki's training sessions, intent that if he couldn't take them to nationals this year, they'd get there next year.

Yuuta just wondered how Atobe was going. If they were under pressure at St Rudolph for losing, then perhaps the pressure for Hyoutei to keep winning was worse.

(S)

"Syuusuke?"

Yumiko pushed Syuusuke's door wide open, noting the textbooks strewn across his bed. "Hm?" he answered, giving her a glance.

Yumiko thought he looked distracted and the phone at his side was a giveaway as to why. "Are you waiting for a phone call?" she asked.

"Not particularly," he smiled, though Yumiko suspected the opposite. He was probably waiting for a call from Tezuka or Kawamura since phone calls from the two seemed to have become regularity on Thursday nights. She suspected Tezuka asked about answers to maths homework while Kawamura used his English homework as an excuse to talk about other things, though really, she knew that if Kawamura really just wanted to talk to Syuusuke more often, all he had to do was ask.

"Have you called Yuuta yet?" she asked then, remembering it was Thursday night and if Yuuta wanted to come home for the weekend, he'd probably have to put in his leave slip tonight.

Syuusuke shook his head. "Not yet. Is there anything you want me to tell him?"

Yumiko paused. "No, but I'll have the phone when you're finished." She had a few calls to make for work and she wasn't going to use her mobile for them.

"I hope he doesn't bring Atobe home again with him," Syuusuke said, by way of answering.

Yumiko walked further into the room, looking out of the window. "I don't think he will," she responded, though she wondered.

It reminded her that she hadn't gotten that favour from Atobe yet and she wasn't intending to let it slip. She didn't really feel like crème brulee, and she couldn't really say there weren't a lot of other things she'd rather spend her time doing, but she wanted to talk to Atobe without Yuuta around. Even if she had told Syuusuke to let Yuuta do things for himself, she was still just a little too curious about Atobe to let the opportunity pass her by. She decided she'd probably make that call to Atobe first, before her business dealings.

Remembering she'd once been in middle school like Syuusuke and she'd once been buried in a sea of textbooks rather than in memos and papers and faxes and stacks of paperwork made her feel a little nostalgic. She glanced back at her brother, her eye suddenly catching sight of a small book half hidden under one of the texts on his bed. It was the book she'd come in looking for and she reached for it to pick it up, about to tell him off for having taken it.

The ring of the telephone cut off anything she would have said though.

Syuusuke almost never picked up the phone before two rings, even if he was right next to it. It gave Yumiko a moment to grasp her book and wave it in his face before she exited the room. She'd been looking for it for a while and she'd had a funny feeling that her brother had simply borrowed it without saying anything. Her gut feelings were usually right, so as she walked down to her room, she flicked through the pages, noting the bookmark halfway through.

She reconsidered calling Atobe for a moment. Did she want to call him now? It was already a Thursday night and the weekend would probably be the best time for her to catch up with him, unless she wanted to rush it after work one day. A moment later, she realised she didn't have Atobe's number anyway and stuck her head back around Syuusuke's doorway to ask him.

It might have been easier to ask Yuuta for it, but Syuusuke was on the phone to Tezuka already and it meant Yuuta wouldn't be able to protest if he didn't know anything. When she asked Syuusuke, however, he looked as though he almost wanted to protest.

(S)

"Nee-san."

Yumiko looked up from her book, taking the phone from Syuusuke's outstretched hand. It had only been ten minutes or so since she'd been into his room to retrieve her book, and she was still poking through the pages whilst lounging on the sofa in front of the TV, looking for the spot she'd last left off at. Syuusuke had shuffled her two bookmarks around, probably not recognising the sales receipt for her bookmark and taking it for his own.

She finally found her spot on page 44, and remembered why she'd abandoned the book the week before in the first place. It was _boring_.

"Everything okay?" she asked, noting her brother's expression.

It told her that, no, not everything was okay, but Yumiko wasn't about to delve into the list of reasons why Atobe was not a suitable suitor for Yuuta so she didn't press further. Knowing Syuusuke, she just _knew_ he was keeping a list up there somewhere and she knew it was what he was currently thinking over.

He told her as much as he sat down on the chair opposite the sofa, giving her a level look. "Tezuka seemed curious as to why you would want Atobe phone number."

Yumiko smiled. "For a good cause," she answered, though she knew Syuusuke already thought he knew why she wanted it.

Getting to know Atobe better wasn't a good cause in his book although he did oblige her, standing up again to drop a folded piece of paper into her lap.

"He's coming over on Saturday night," Syuusuke said, shaking his head slightly.

"Who?" Yumiko asked, a little confused. "Atobe? Did you talk to Yuuta already?"

"No," Syuusuke replied, opening his eyes. "Tezuka."

"Oh?" Yumiko said, wondering what Yuuta would think.

He never said it, but she'd always gotten the impression that he always expected Syuusuke to pay him attention when he was at home, even if he complained more than enough about it. The few times some of the boys from Seigaku had come over at the same times Yuuta had come home, he'd looked distinctly uncomfortable and had crept off to his bedroom and holed himself up in there for hours when normally he'd be in a vegetative state in front of the television instead.

She knew a lot of the discomfort came from the fact that he'd started off attending middle school at Seigaku, but the other part of it… she wasn't so sure about. It was perhaps because apart from Saeki, he and Syuusuke had never really shared their friends.

At any rate, Syuusuke certainly didn't get along that well with Yuuta's friends from St Rudolph either. Asking him to stay in the same room with Mizuki was like asking for a war to erupt, even if lately the animosity between them seemed to have subsided a little bit, perhaps because Syuusuke had found a new dislike in Atobe.

"You're going to call Yuuta now, aren't you?" Syuusuke asked.

Yumiko tilted her head a little, looking at him. "You didn't call already?"

Syuusuke shook his head.

Yumiko shrugged in reply, waiting until her brother had gone upstairs again before unfolding the paper in her lap. She conceded it was probably a little odd doing things this way, but no matter. She dialled Atobe's number, listening to the ring tone and fiddling with her book.

Atobe took nearly eight rings to pick up the phone, by which time Yumiko was wondering whether there was something to be said about making people wait on the other end of the phone line.

"Yuuta," Atobe answered, surprising Yumiko.

She grinned to herself, tucking her knees up under her and pushing her book aside. "No, actually this is Yumiko, not Yuuta," she corrected, hearing what sounded like a noise of dissatisfaction from Atobe. He sounded as though she'd just cut off something of a scolding. "I was just wondering if your offer of afternoon tea still stands," she explained.

"Ah."

Yumiko noted, not without amusement, that Atobe sounded just a little put off.

"Of course, I haven't forgotten," he continued, "though I'm rather busy at the moment so I'm not sure-"

"How's tomorrow afternoon for you?" Yumiko cut in. He'd offered the afternoon tea, but if they were going to do it, she'd rather it were on her own terms. Allowing a boy like Atobe to dictate terms to her and tell her to juggle her schedule around his was not in her intentions.

"I have a work meeting until four, but I could meet you afterwards, if the time's convenient for you," she offered.

Atobe sounded even less enthusiastic then. "Actually I won't be free tomorrow afternoon," he answered a little haughtily.

Yumiko didn't think he was used to other people calling the shots around him, and that was fine, but she couldn't help but wonder how Yuuta put up with someone like him.

"I suppose I could make time to see you on Saturday, though it would have to be after practise and before my evening commitments," he conceded.

Yumiko smiled. Saturday worked for her.

"Saturday would be good for me," she answered, "although, there is just one thing…"

(S)

Yumiko marked down Saturday, 4:30 PM in her diary, tossing the phone onto the chair opposite as she stretched out along the sofa, lying on her back and picking up her book again.

Then she changed her mind, glancing at the clock, and had to get back up again to pick up the phone. Yuuta's number was on speed dial so she pressed the buttons automatically, waiting for the call to connect. It did, but what she got on the other end wasn't the sound of the phone ringing. It was the beeping that signalled his phone was already engaged.

She tossed the phone aside and picked up her book again, wondering if she'd ever get past page 44 and whether or not she was simply reading the book now because she didn't want to make her other phone calls yet.

(S)

Atobe put his phone on his desktop and marked down Saturday, 4:30 PM in his diary.

The ink cartridge in his fountain pen seemed to be running low, so his number '3' had a funny look to it where the ink had suddenly hit an air block. He pulled it apart with annoyance, staring at the ink cartridge and turning it upside down to see a pathetic dribble of ink down one side of the inside of the clear cartridge. Then he scrummaged through his top drawer, looking for the packet of replacements and not finding any.

Yumiko's phone call had surprised him… Perhaps less so because he hadn't expected her to call, but because he'd expected it to be Yuuta. He felt odd counting the days between talking with Yuuta or seeing him, but he did it almost automatically every time he flipped open his phone now and every time he looked at his message archives, he realised the number of unsent messages had gone up by one or two, or sometimes three.

It had taken him three tries to write a message that sounded decent when he read it aloud, and he'd sent that to Yuuta in the afternoon and he _still_ hadn't gotten a reply.

In the end, he'd settled for something short and to the point, but he was starting to wonder if it had been too short. It wasn't a stretch of Atobe's imagination to think Yuuta might have been peeved by it. Yuuta could be… somewhat sensitive at times, Atobe thought.

He wasn't used to waiting.

As he scrummaged through his drawer some more, he wondered why he hadn't noticed it was so messy before. There was a box of paperclips he'd left open and now there were multicoloured plastic-coated paperclips dispersed throughout the drawer, something which annoyed him to no end.

His finger hit something sharp when he least expected it, and he pulled his hand from the drawer quickly, feeling the sharp pain setting in where it was bleeding. An open safety pin sat in the midst of the paperclips.

Atobe couldn't see why things just couldn't cooperate with him. Why was it so hard for things to just _work out_?

He glared at his phone again, but the display on the screen hadn't changed at all. No new messages. No missed phone calls. But of course, he didn't really need to look at it again to check it. He'd been doing that all day and he knew he hadn't missed anything from Yuuta.

In fact, he thought, his social life as a whole had been disturbingly quiet these past two weeks. Shishido and Ootori were absorbed in whatever it was that they did with each other, while Gakuto and Oshitari had been irksome trying to stick their noses where they weren't wanted, and yet Atobe couldn't really say anything had changed to trigger the lull in his socialising. They were all just preoccupied with training, in a way.

Finally pulling the entire drawer out of his desk and turning it upside down on the desk's surface, Atobe found the box of ink cartridges. He pushed his drawer back in to the old desk and tossed bundles of pens and pencils back in, leaving the mess of clips on his desk in front of him.

Yumiko was a mystery to him. Atobe had always thought Fuji Syuusuke was a little on the strange side, but then he'd met Yuuta, who was far more straight forward in everything he did and said, and Atobe had thought that Syuusuke must have been the odd one out in his family.

He knew now that he'd been wrong about that, but it still struck him as strange that Yuuta, being the youngest, hadn't turned out a lot more like his siblings. Weren't siblings supposed to turn out similarly?

Atobe picked up the paperclips scattered over his desk as he thought about it. The thought that he could have had siblings had never really occurred to him before. He wondered what it would have been like to have any. Would the house have been noisier somehow? Or would there have been more maids to look after them?

He didn't normally bother talking with the maids or the butlers much and even conversations with his mother tended to be restricted to mealtimes now. He could hardly imagine having anyone else constantly in the house with whom he'd actually be expected to spend time. It was an odd thought.

What did Yumiko want to get out of meeting up with him on Saturday? He realised he'd been the one to offer the invitation in the first place, but he hadn't really anticipated that she'd take him up on it, and he was half annoyed that she had. Not to mention, on top of that, she was asking him not to tell Yuuta about it.

He couldn't imagine why, unless she wanted to ask him something she knew Yuuta would object to…

Atobe glared at his phone. He was annoyed he'd picked up Yumiko's call at all, really, but it had been coming from Yuuta's home number so in his stupidity, he'd assumed perhaps something had happened to make Yuuta go home. He ought to have known better since it wasn't even the weekend yet.

As he kept glaring at it, it rang, catching him off guard. He was about to turn it off, having had enough conversation for one night, when he realised the caller ID read 'Yuu'.

He flipped it open and managed to stop himself just before saying "Yuuta" again. He wasn't about to do it for a second time in one night because with his luck, as of late, it might as well be Mizuki on the other end of the phone.

"Atobe speaking," he said instead, trying not to get his hopes up.

"Hi…" the voice said on the other end, and Atobe nearly breathed a sigh of relief.

"How are you?" he asked, resuming picking up the paperclips on his desk. He pressed the phone as close as possible to his ear, trying to hear if there was anything going on in the background on Yuuta's end.

"I'm… okay?" Yuuta supplied, not bothering to hide his confusion. Atobe rarely asked him how he was during their conversations. He tended to keep observations about Yuuta's health to the times he felt like interrogating him over it, like when Yuuta had been sick.

Atobe waited for a lengthier explanation, but none was forthcoming and he sat down in his chair. "So," he prompted. "I didn't get a response from you about dinner tomorrow."

"Ah… right," Yuuta replied, awkward. "I thought I'd call you instead, but you've been engaged for a while."

Atobe jolted. "Right," he clarified. Yuuta wouldn't have known it was because he'd been talking to Yumiko. He wasn't at home and Yumiko certainly wouldn't have told him. "I was just talking to our coach," he lied.

Yuuta was sitting on the edge of his bed as he spoke. He tensed a little, pulling his feet up and sitting cross-legged instead of letting his feet dangle above the floor. He didn't really want to think about tennis actually. He didn't like the thought that Atobe felt like he was on another level of play entirely. He didn't like the thought that if Atobe watched him play, he'd see all the holes in his game where he was trying to improve. So he changed the topic; it was easier that way. "So anyway… About dinner on Friday…"

"Tomorrow, you mean," Atobe clarified.

"Same thing," Yuuta grumbled, just glad he didn't have anything else to say about tennis. "I… don't think I can come tomorrow, so would Saturday be okay for you?"

Atobe paused. "No… I have a family dinner on Saturday."

"Oh," Yuuta said, and Atobe wondered if he couldn't have expressed his sentiments any better.

"Well… Afternoon maybe?" Yuuta started, a little hesitantly.

"No," Atobe replied, shaking his head to himself.

He'd already committed himself to meeting Yumiko, and as she'd asked him not to tell Yuuta, he assumed that meant he couldn't exactly bring Yuuta either.

"I… Just let me see if I can juggle anything," he replied, wondering if Yuuta could tell he was hiding something. He wasn't a particularly transparent person, so he hoped the answer was 'no'.

"Oh, well… Okay then… I guess I'll go home on Saturday then," Yuuta mumbled. "We have a team bonding exercise tomorrow so that's why…"

He leaned back on the bed, leaning back on his hand. "Anyway, you must be really busy huh? You still have nationals coming up so…" Yuuta babbled. "I'll talk to you later."

"No, that's not…" Atobe sighed.

"So, see you Atobe-san," Yuuta hurried on, hanging up as Atobe put his fingers to his temple.

He finished picking up all the paperclips on his desk, replaced the ink cartridge in his pen and pulled out his homework, throwing himself into the history of the shogunate era, trying not to think about how annoyed he felt.

Why was it that things with Yuuta just didn't go smoothly? He'd been wrong to think that trying to get the courage to kiss Yuuta was the hard part.

Trying to _date_ him was damn near impossible.

.tbc.


	14. Chapter 13

Notes: Multiple chapters today because they're short and because otherwise I'll forget to update. XD

Archive: No.

Reviews: ... I don't know what to write here anymore XD

**About Us**

Chapter 13

By Miki

"Wait, wait!" Kaneda yelled quickly, next to Akazawa as they both rounded the corner and found themselves face to face with Yuuta.

Or was that… suit to suit. They were all dressed in hired protective outfits; black plastic suits and black boots covered with smeared paint. Evidence that a lot of people had worn these boots before and had been shot out of the game.

Kaneda could only recognise Yuuta by his hair. Their faces were protected by masks and even Mizuki was running around looking a lot like an alien with a poof of curly hair on his head. He'd been eliminated about five minutes into the game when Yuuta refused to sacrifice himself for his manager while he tied up his hair, but then Mizuki had declared the first five minutes 'warm up' and had declared that once you were shot ten times between two people, you were out.

Even Akazawa hadn't really cared about that, since they all figured Mizuki would be easy to catch out anyway. Giving him a bit of leeway at the beginning of the game wasn't going to make a difference.

Now Mizuki was behind Yuuta – they were back to back – and Akazawa watched as Kaneda yelped and suddenly dived behind him.

"O-Oi!" he protested, but Mizuki was on the ball and Akazawa had been caught off guard and he found himself hit rather hard with a huge splotch of purple paint.

He almost wished he'd thought of using Kaneda as a shield first. The team rankings really didn't matter to him at all, but it was more the bruises he was concerned about, because as far as he was concerned, they hurt like _hell_.

(S)

Yuuta _ought_ to have said no.

He pulled down his boxers and stared in his bathroom mirror, poking one finger uncomfortably at the spot at the lower part of his back. It was turning green already, which was pretty funny considering it had been Nomura who had shot him last night and it was only Saturday afternoon now. There was another bruise forming on his right buttock; the result of one of Atsushi's shots. Weirdly enough, it was the only one of Atsushi's shots to have hit him, though he landed two on Mizuki.

Yuuta wasn't sure if it was his pride or his backside which was more injured.

He wanted to blame Mizuki for the fact that they lost the game to Kaneda and Akazawa, since Mizuki had taken three shots and he'd taken two. But Mizuki had actually taken one paintball for him, so he supposed he couldn't really say it was all Mizuki's fault.

Yanagisawa and Atsushi stuck together too much to be much use as a team, especially when everyone else could hear the 'da ne's coming from around the corner and get ready to spring an attack.

Yuuta wondered why he couldn't have been by himself and forced Nomura to partner with Mizuki instead.

Still, he was glad the whole exercise was over anyway. Mizuki had rambled on a bit about tactics and strategy at the end of the whole thing, but mostly he was busy telling Nomura off for daring to hit his hair with a paintball, so Nomura had quipped that Mizuki ought to have thought strategy himself and brought one of his shower caps.

It was good that Nomura actually had muscles in his body because Mizuki had assigned him an inhumane number of sit-ups.

So he could think things over while he did them.

"Yuuta!" Mizuki called out through the door.

Yuuta jerked, tensing on the spot and imagining – not for the first time – that Mizuki could have eyes that could see through doors.

"I'm still doing it!" he yelled back, frowning at his bruises, pushing his boxers down further so he could turn his head to try and peer at his own backside. It was uncomfortable and put a kink in his neck doing it, but Mizuki had given him some cream he was supposed to apply and he was standing outside the door and probably wouldn't go away until Yuuta told him he'd done it and handed back his stupid pot of cream.

Yuuta wished the noises he made wouldn't echo in the bathroom quite so much.

"Yuuuuuuu-ta-kuuuuun!" Mizuki called out again, rapping his knuckles on the door. "Do you need help?"

Yuuta unscrewed the top of the tub, dipped his fingers into the gooey white mess and slathered it rather liberally on his bruises. Then he pulled back up his boxers and shorts and pulled his shirt back on and hoped he'd put on enough cream to appease Mizuki for the next day at least.

His backside felt kind of slimy now, and it felt as though his boxers were sticking in it. At least he wasn't seeing Atobe today, he figured. _He'd_ have something to say about all of it, Yuuta thought.

Stupid Atobe. Stupid Mizuki. And stupid cream that was making things feel odd.

(S)

"Yuuta!"

Yuuta turned around, looking up from his position on his bed. "What?" he asked, turning his back to his guest and shoving another pair of boxers into his bag. He ticked things off on his fingers; maths text book, English reading book, boxers, shorts, clean shirt, socks, Japanese history workbook…

He didn't think his brother had any plans for the weekend so he might as well try to get ahead in history at least, since he knew he had that Monday morning and his teacher was going to have his head if he wasn't prepared again. Besides, he had an awful feeling it was his turn to answer questions, and having slacked off the week before, if she asked him anything other than what was in the first paragraph of the latest chapter, she'd be getting a whole lot of nothing.

Which wouldn't look good on his grades.

"We're going to play tennis," Atsushi said.

Yuuta considered.

He pushed the thought of Atobe to the back of his mind. If he weren't busy, they could have met up today at least, but he was doing some stupid family dinner and Yuuta wasn't his family and it wasn't as though Atobe could even help that, but it still ticked Yuuta off to no end.

No, he wasn't going to think about that.

It was only a little after two in the afternoon, so even if he went home now, his brother might be out of the house and, well, everything with Atobe had left Yuuta feeling like he had too much energy for his own good. He pushed his bag aside and got up, looking around on the floor for another pair of socks and where had he put his other shoe? Hadn't it been somewhere around here?

"So is that a yes?" Atsushi asked, watching him.

"It's a yes, da ne," Yanagisawa nodded.

Yuuta rolled his eyes, only a little annoyed Yanagisawa thought he could answer for him. He tossed a dirty shirt his way but Yanagisawa just pushed it aside and it landed on Atsushi instead.

"I heard there's a street tournament on tomorrow, da ne."

Yuuta perked up.

(S)

Tachibana An wasn't the person Yuuta really wanted to see, but she was okay, he supposed. Considering he knew some of his brother's friends sometimes hung out here, he guessed he didn't mind bumping into the Fudoumine guys instead. They weren't so egotistic really, and they weren't about to tell his brother anything weird at school on Monday.

Yuuta grinned in satisfaction as he sent a return flying down the sideline next to Yanagisawa.

"Hey! Why didn't you get that?" Kamio demanded loudly, showing his irritation with his impromptu doubles partner.

"It was fast, da ne!" Yanagisawa protested, having sprinted from the other side of the court to try to catch it. "If _you're_ so fast, why don't _you_ get it next time, huh?"

Kamio looked incensed. "Are you saying I'm slow, huh? What sort of game would this be if I had to cover the whole court for you?"

"I'm saying you can't say anything if you can't get it yourself, da ne!" Yanagisawa insisted, stepping towards Kamio.

Kamio put his hands on his hips, standing up straighter and scowling. "But it's not my job to get that, is it? What would be the point in playing doubles if I had to get everything? You're a doubles player, 'cause you sure can't play singles, so what are you-"

"Who says I can't play singles, da ne? I bet I could beat your any day, you shrimp!"

"Hey…" An drawled, an amused smile on her face. She leaned across the net, distracting her opponents for a moment.

Yanagisawa and Kamio turned to her. "What?" they demanded loudly, annoyed to have been interrupted.

Yuuta smiled a bit awkwardly, stepping up beside An. "Don't you think we could just finish the game?" he asked, shaking his head a little.

Yanagisawa could be really stubborn sometimes but Atsushi was on the other court playing a singles match against Ibu and therefore couldn't interrupt to knock some sense back into his partner.

"If you hadn't decided to play with An, I wouldn't have to play with him!" Kamio said loudly, pointing his finger squarely at Yuuta.

Yuuta's temper flared. "Hey! You can't say that just because you can't hit the stupid ball! You're ju-"

An put her hand on his arm, startling him into shutting up and nearly biting his own tongue in doing so.

"Kamio-kun…"

Kamio glared at the spot where An was touching Yuuta and stomped his foot on the ground. "Hurry up and serve the ball Yanagisawa!" he snapped loudly.

Yuuta pulled his arm back from An's hand quickly, glad for the fact that he had to get back to his position quickly to receive Yanagisawa's serve. An stepped up close to him again when Yanagisawa double faulted, blaming Kamio for distracting him by yelling things while he was trying to concentrate. Kamio blamed Yanagisawa and said that if he wasn't a second-rate player, he wouldn't have to yell instructions in the first place.

An simply sighed but took the opportunity to walk up to Yuuta again. Whatever she said about tactics went right over Yuuta's head as he felt all the blood going to his face instead.

She kept _touching_ him and it was making him feel weird all over and he didn't want her to make him feel like that because it felt wrong. Because it suddenly occurred to him that the only person who had touched him before and made his body feel like that was Atobe. The only thing that saved Yuuta from his embarrassment was the fact that Kamio started yelling again and looked like he was about to vault the net.

Yuuta glared back at him and after Yanagisawa finally managed to serve something that _didn't_ hit the net, Yuuta made sure to smack it straight back at Kamio to shut him up. He was so _loud_ and Yuuta couldn't stand people who were loud like that.

An and Yuuta ended up beating Yanagisawa and Kamio, but only really because they self-destructed. Ibu and Atsushi had a much more civil match, something Yuuta thought might have been due to the fact that Ibu's mumbling was ten decibels quieter than the loud babbling Atsushi was used to.

"By the way, you know there's a tournament on tomorrow?" An asked, brushing down her shirt.

Yuuta glanced at her out of the corner of his eyes.

"Ah, yeah…" he answered vaguely.

He wasn't going anywhere tomorrow. He was going to go home and watch movies and he knew exactly the one he wanted to watch, though he wasn't about to tell anyone else if they asked. Even his brother sometimes paid him out about watching kids' movies, but Yuuta found them comforting and who cared if mice didn't really talk in English? They didn't talk in Japanese either, but that wasn't the point. Some movies were just classics.

"So are you coming?" An asked, smiling at him.

"No… I'm going home," Yuuta mumbled, looking at Atsushi.

He didn't save him though, and neither did Yanagisawa, because he was too busy glaring at Kamio to pay any attention to Yuuta.

"Well there should be some good mixed doubles matches tomorrow if you want to play," An hinted.

"An-chan! Why can't I play with you?" Kamio whined, looking offended.

"Isn't it obvious? It must have something to do with Fuji-kun's body since I'm sure An's been staring at him a lot today. I mean, she stares at you normally but it's a different kind of stare like when you're being stupid or when you're with Tachibana-san, or like the other day when we were having ice cream and you put too much in your mouth and froze your teeth and your mouth started going numb," Ibu supplied helpfully. "I think it's the same sort of stare that she gives to those boys at the basketball courts, don't you-"

"Shinji," Kamio glowered.

"See, da ne," Yanagisawa smirked, rubbing salt into the wound. "Even Ibu says it, da ne. Yuuta's way better than you are, da ne. He has to be, doesn't he, since even At-"

Atsushi hit Yanagisawa's arm abruptly.

An gave Yanagisawa an interested look, having ignored the spiel that had just come out of Ibu's mouth. She glanced at Yuuta and he looked away, unaware that Yanagisawa had been about to blurt out anything.

He was too busy willing his face not to turn bright red when he thought about An looking at him funny. He thought he ought to hurry up and go home before he got stuck with the peak hour traffic on the trains.

(S)

Yumiko stepped into the café, glancing left and right at the tables near the doorway. She assumed Atobe wouldn't be at any of those; he'd be more likely to have a table at the back where there were less people walking past or at the sides where the views of the street were still reasonable but where the in and out traffic of the door didn't get in the way.

She was right; she spotted him sitting at a table by the window facing towards her though he didn't seem to notice her. He was too busy looking out the window, apparently having decided that she was five minutes late and that he couldn't wait to order himself something to drink.

"Atobe-kun."

He looked up at her quickly as she sat down.

"Fuji-san," he returned.

He traced his finger around the base of his glass for a moment, trying to remember how he'd envisaged starting this conversation. Yumiko beat him to it though.

"I see you went ahead and ordered without me," she smiled. "I hope that doesn't mean you were waiting for me for a long time."

"No, not at all," Atobe lied. Truthfully, the timing was a little awkward for him so he'd ended up coming straight from training and spending twenty minutes by himself. Kabaji wasn't required and it would take a whole lot of explaining to him if he did come, though Atobe did intend to tell him sooner or later…

Seeing Yumiko made him feel a little more settled though, as odd as it was. He'd have preferred to see Yuuta, but maybe it wasn't such a bad thing to get this meeting with his sister out of the way first.

"So," he prompted, "why is it that Yuuta can't be told about this?"

Yumiko picked up the menu on the table, opening it and ignoring Atobe's question for a moment. "What's the coffee like here?" she asked, flicking the page.

Atobe frowned. "It's… fine," he answered, wanting to get back to his question. "I'd recommend the tea rather than the coffee, but that's besides the point-"

Yumiko smiled, making him suddenly feel wary. "And what is the point, Atobe-kun?"

Atobe sat back in his chair, crossing his legs. He could only just do it under the height of the table and it felt awkward. Uncrossing his legs though would have been more awkward, so he put up with it. "I just wonder why you don't think Yuuta has the right to know that we're meeting today."

Yumiko laughed. "Oh, he has the right; I didn't say he didn't. I just told you not to tell him."

Atobe uncrossed his legs and sat forwards, staring intently at Yumiko, trying to understand what she was thinking.

"You know, I think I'll try out the crème brulée, since we're here," Yumiko said, calling over the waiter. "Are you having anything, Atobe?"

He shook his head. He'd be lying to say he didn't have an appetite, but he didn't really feel like eating with Yumiko. He could save it for later when he got home. He felt more than a little guilty about meeting her like this, and he kept wondering exactly what Yuuta was doing right now. Was he with Mizuki? Or was he by himself? Was he annoyed about not being able to meet up? It wasn't all his fault but Atobe was irked by the fact that he had to sit here with Yumiko, not knowing at all what she was thinking or why she'd asked him to come, while he could have been seeing Yuuta instead.

"You know, Atobe-kun, I'm only going to say this to you once."

Atobe looked at Yumiko.

"Yuuta is my little brother," she smiled. "If you hurt him, I think he'd probably forgive you but _I_ certainly wouldn't. I just want you to be sure of what you're doing before you do it."

Atobe frowned. Did she think he'd just decided to date Yuuta on impulse? Did she think he didn't understand the implications it would have for both their families if they found out? Did she not understand that he, even more so than Yuuta, had everything to lose if the wrong people found out about it?

"I understand your concern," he started, "but I…"

He blinked as he saw a pair of familiar faces at the door of the café.

(S)

"I don't know why we were trying to follow Fuji-kun anyway. I don't think An knows either and I think Akira's about to lose his head since he looks red in the face, though I guess he often looks red in the face whenever An's around. I guess she notices though she hasn't said anything, but isn't it funny that Fuji-kun turned red today as well? I wonder why it doesn't happen to me when I stand next to An-chan and I wonder what Tachibana-san would say if he knew that An-chan liked Fuji-kun, though I don't suppose he'd have a problem with Fuji-kun. It's not like he's Atobe after all, or even…"

Ibu trailed off as Kamio glared at him.

"Do you mind?" he snapped, his face nearly matching the colour of his hair.

"By the way, we're not following anyone anymore anyway," An said, sighing. "I think we lost them a while ago."

Kamio groaned. "Where are we anyway? I don't know this part of town."

An shook her head, looking around. "I don't know… I think…"

She hesitated, unsure whether to head in the direction they were going or turn around and try to retrace their steps. "I guess we could ask someone, or else try to find some landmarks?"

"I vote for landmarks," Kamio said loudly.

An gave him a dirty look.

"What's wrong with asking someone?" she questioned, grabbing his arm and dragging him up the street and around the corner.

"Oh, look at those people over there," Ibu muttered. "Don't they realise they're leaving marks all over the windows? Don't they realise that someone has to clean those marks off and the more marks they leave on the windows, the more they have to pay for their food next time they go out because-"

"Shinji," Kamio said warningly, though he sounded less cranky than before because An was still holding his arm.

Ibu ignored him and continued on his tangent. "People like that don't appreciate the money that goes into cleaning. See, if you have to spend time cleaning the windows and nothing is free, then those people have to be paid to clean windows so that contributes to the cost that goes into making coffee so then the coffee costs more the more marks there are on the windows…"

"Shinji. I don't think a few marks on the windows are going to make a big difference to the price of coffee," An said, trying to get him to be quiet. "Besides, who are you talking about?"

Ibu raised a finger, pointing across the road and behind them. "On second though, those people don't look very old, do they? Actually the short one looks familiar, doesn't he? He has the same sort of hair as Akira, only I bet he can actually see out of his hair because I often wonder how Akira manages to see the tennis balls when he has hair in the way. It's just-"

"Aren't they Oshitari and Mukahi from Hyoutei?" An blurted out, stopping.

Kamio would have kept walking but for the fact that An yanked his arm and he yelped. "Does it matter?" he sulked.

"We can ask them for directions," An exclaimed, looking for the best spot to cross the road.

"That's embarrassing, An-chan…" Kamio complained, but let himself be dragged anyway. "I bet they don't even know and even if they did, they wouldn't tell us because they're all up themselves at Hyoutei, just like that stupid Atobe."

An cringed at the mention of Atobe's name, but it didn't deter her from dragging Kamio across the road and back down the street.

"Hi," she announced loudly, interrupting Oshitari and Gakuto.

The two of them jumped, Gakuto glaring as he recovered from the surprise.

An smiled. "Did we interrupt something?" she asked, recognising the look of guilt that crossed Gakuto's face.

He crossed his arms, suddenly taciturn. "What makes you think that?"

An glanced through the window where they'd been staring just a moment before. She stepped back a little as she recognised Atobe; the memories of her experience with him just a little fresh in her mind.

"You're not exactly being subtle if you're trying to spy on him, you know," she pointed out, trying to rid herself of the feeling that Atobe could just glance at them any moment. She almost wished Ibu hadn't spotted these two here.

Gakuto snorted. "What we do is our business. Don't go sticking your nose into it, Tachibana An."

An smiled. "Oh, so you remember me?"

Gakuto rolled his eyes. "Of course. You're the person Atobe liked _before_ he liked…" he stopped, frowning and glancing in the window again.

"Hey, do you think he's seen us, Yuushi?"

Oshitari snapped to attention as Atobe glanced at them.

Gakuto wasn't looking through the window at that moment, so he shrugged and pushed his glasses back up his nose. "Probably not."

.tbc.


	15. Chapter 14

Notes: Multiple chapters today because they're short and because otherwise I'll forget to update. XD Actually I meant to say a while ago that although I've finished writing About Us already (when I remember XDD) which is why I can update it quickly, reviews can be helpful. When I was having trouble writing the last few chapters of About Us, some of the thoughtful reviews for Satisfaction were really encouraging :3

Second to last chapter! XD

Archive: No.

**About Us**

Chapter 14

By Miki

It didn't really hit Atobe until he was sitting in the back seat of the limousine, that what Yumiko had meant by calling him out like this was to tell him she didn't trust him. It was nothing more and nothing less. She simply didn't trust him with her younger brother and she wanted to know what sort of a person Atobe was.

The realisation was almost insulting. He was _Atobe Keigo_, for goodness' sakes! How could she not trust him? He wasn't just any _commoner_.

Besides, he thought, was it not enough that he felt equally confused about the whole thing? What did she expect of him? Perhaps it was true he'd been the one to start the ball rolling, but it wasn't as though Yuuta had been forced to date him. It wasn't as though Yuuta couldn't make up his own mind and didn't have his own brain, and it seemed utterly unfair that Yumiko seemed to have pinned responsibility for everything on him only.

He stared out the window, suddenly unhappy. The conversation with Yumiko had left him feeling unsure about where he stood with her, and though he knew Yumiko wasn't Yuuta and Yuuta wasn't his family, he didn't feel much better for it. He was used to being openly scrutinised – his family's social position attracted interest, of course – but when it came from Yumiko, he felt ill at ease.

He felt caught suddenly; caught between trying to be the one who knew what they were doing and where they were going, and caught between wanting to just let things be because when things were like this with Yuuta, he really felt as though he was just a kid trying to play a game he couldn't quite understand. He felt odd about the fact that there were no rules to follow and no guidelines to tell him how to stay on track. He felt odd because unlike the singles games he was used to, this was something which was reliant on the fact that there were two of them in it together.

He'd never really been good at doubles matches, oddly enough. It had always struck him as stupid to try and do something with someone else that he could easily do alone.

Yuuta didn't exactly strike him as much of a doubles player either. Doubles was something that required coordination, understanding, trust and commitment. It wasn't something you could learn overnight.

(S)

Yuuta stepped in through the front door, standing his right heel on the toe of his left shoe and lifting his foot out, and then doing the same for the other shoe.

He slipped his shoes onto the shelf, shuffled his feet into his slippers and trudged through to the lounge room, hearing Yumiko come in the door behind him. She'd picked him up from school, ringing him just as he was signing out of the office and rushing to catch the train. He'd asked her where she'd been, but all she'd said was that she was 'on this side of town' and then she'd changed the topic… which seemed to suggest to Yuuta that she'd been doing something she didn't want him to know about.

Sometimes he wondered if she talked about that sort of thing to Aniki; if he missed much because he was living at St Rudolph instead of at home.

As he passed through the lounge room, he had to do a double take, glancing at the figure on the chair across from his brother. The crossed legs and the hands holding a cup of tea caught his eye quickly, but he glanced, heart in his throat, and then realised he'd been wrong.

The person on the chair was Tezuka, and his blank expression was about the last thing Yuuta wanted to see right now.

"Yuuta," Syuusuke exclaimed happily, turning around and getting up to walk around the sofa to his brother.

"Aniki," Yuuta grumbled, being hugged only slightly against his will.

He might have hugged his brother back if Tezuka weren't in the room, but his brother's captain had always bothered him a little, so he pushed his brother off quickly and headed towards the stairs instead, giving an awkward 'hello' to their guest.

"Yuuta? Tezuka's staying over tonight, okay?" Syuusuke called out.

Yuuta froze in his steps, biting his lip to stop himself from saying something in response. Just this once, he'd wanted to talk to his brother and he'd wanted to talk to him about Atobe, which meant that having Tezuka around was out of the question.

He trudged to his room, dropped his bag down in the middle of the floor and then shut his bedroom door. _Loudly_.

(S)

"How's school, Yuuta?" Yoshiko asked, smiling at him.

"Okay," he said, putting a piece of fish in his mouth. His mother usually didn't ask him questions when he was eating, so he figured the more he ate, the less she'd ask.

Apparently that didn't deter her though.

"So how's tennis lately? How's Mizuki-kun? Did you have practice today?"

Yuuta swallowed his mouthful slowly, ignoring the smile on Yumiko's face and the blank look on Tezuka's. The fact that Tezuka was a brilliant player was totally unrelated to the fact that he had about as many facial expressions as the steamed fish on Yuuta's plate right now, though it did stop Yuuta from feeling as though he could really talk to the guy.

His brother's other friends were worse than Tezuka anyway, and Tezuka was the only one who really came over regularly anyway. Mostly he seemed to come on the weekends and mostly he seemed to bring stacks of maths books with him, which made Yuuta think that his tennis genius might not extend to his studies.

"Yuuta?" Yumiko prompted. "Aren't you going to answer?"

Yuuta gave her an irritated look. "Yeah, fine."

There was silence at the table for a moment as his mother tried to interpret his answer. "You mean school is fine? Or do you mean Mizuki's fine?" she questioned.

Yuuta shook his head. "Everything's fine."

"So what did you do today? Yumiko said you played tennis at the street courts," Syuusuke said.

Tezuka was politely quiet beside him, sipping at his tea.

Yuuta wondered why they weren't all interrogating _him_ instead. Wasn't he more interesting anyway? And why were they ignoring their guest in favour of him anyway? He'd just wanted to come home to get away from people and yet they were probably going to keep asking him stupid things until he answered everything.

He sighed, rolling his eyes up at the ceiling and then taking a long sip of his tea. "I went to the street courts with Yanagisawa and-"

"Da ne," Syuusuke interrupted.

Yuuta tried to give him a dirty look, but couldn't help smirking a little. "Da ne," he echoed, agreeing with his brother while Yumiko looked bemused and Yoshiko looked confused.

"_Anyway_, I went to the street courts with Yanagisawa and Kisarazu and we played a doubles match with… with Tachibana An and Kamio Akira."

"Oh, how's Kamio?" Syuusuke asked enquiringly. "And if you were going to play a match, you could have called us, Yuuta."

Yuuta frowned. "I wasn't planning to go out there today," he grumbled.

"How come you didn't ask Atobe-kun?" his mother asked, as though reading his mind.

"Yes, Yuuta, how's Atobe going?" Syuusuke echoed, taking the chance to change the topic slightly.

Yuuta glanced at him, accidentally catching Tezuka's eye. The surprised look on Tezuka's face wasn't what Yuuta was expecting to see so he turned his head to meet Tezuka's gaze directly.

"Uh… He's fine," he answered distractedly, glancing back at his dinner again.

That was right, wasn't it? Atobe and Tezuka were at the same level of tennis; it was normal that they'd be interested in each other.

He shoved the rest of his fish into his mouth quickly and finished off his rice so fast that he nearly chocked on a few stray grains.

"Yuuta? Are you okay?" Yumiko questioned, frowning.

He swallowed down the rest of his tea. "Yeah, fine. Can I go now?"

(S)

"Keigo? What are you doing in here?"

Atobe looked up, shrinking back as he recognised his mother's face. "I'm tired," he said, a whine slipping into his tone of voice.

"Don't be silly," Miyoko admonished, frowning at him. She stepped further into the library, pushing the heavy door behind her and clicking it shut. "Our guests are out there and you're in here sulking like a child, Keigo. I even had to come and get you myself. What are they going to think if you stay in here any longer?"

Atobe concentrated his vision on the bookshelf opposite him, drawing his legs up onto the lounge chair he sat on. He really didn't want to spend any more time out there. He didn't care for any of the guests his mother had invited over, nor did he care for his cousins and their stupid, childish antics. They thought they were so grown-up sitting there blabbing about politics and the economy, but Atobe could have told them that the more they talked, the more they showed their complete and utter ignorance.

All they were good for was regurgitating what the morning's newspaper had said and Atobe had no interest in that, just as they had no interest in actually learning anything for themselves.

The only cousin whose company he really enjoyed was currently overseas on business anyway, so Atobe had retreated to his library after the main course. He knew it was terrible of him, but he just didn't want to see anyone.

"Come on, Keigo," Miyoko said again, a little more loudly, when he showed no signs of movement. "They're asking where you are."  
"Tell them I'm sick," Atobe grumbled, knowing fully that it was just as unreasonable a request as it was a statement. He wasn't sick; they'd know he was lying since he'd been at the dinner table looking perfectly normal just a few minutes before. "They're so annoying…"

Miyoko stared at him a moment longer, frowning before making a noise of irritation and turning on her heel.

"I'll let you stay in here for an hour, Keigo. _One hour_ and then I expect you back out here. Don't make us look silly." She cast a glance at his posture as he hunched in his chair. "I don't know what you're being so childish about, but it's unlike you."

Atobe listened to the door click shut.

He knew it was silly. He knew it was childish, but he just didn't want to have to sit there and listen to their half-baked drivel. He didn't have the patience for it and he didn't care for it, so why couldn't he just do what he wanted? Why couldn't he just have told Yuuta _yes_ and told his parents _no_?

He knew it wasn't as though he had to spend every weekend like this, but the knowledge that in the future he wouldn't be able to shirk any of this was starting to worry him. If he couldn't do what he wanted to do now, what was he going to do in five or ten years' time?

And he'd really wanted to see Yuuta.

He propped a pillow under his head and wriggled until he was comfortable.

He wasn't going back out. Let them come in and find him if they really gave a shit at all.

He hoped they didn't find him, and stared at the handle of the door, sure his mother had closed it properly. He wanted to see Yuuta so badly but he wasn't going to call him about it now. He already felt odd about seeing Yuuta after seeing Yumiko and he hadn't yet decided what he wanted to do about Yumiko either.

He just wanted to be. He just wanted to spend time with Yuuta and stop worrying so much, yet he knew it came with his position. It came with his position, with his name, with the fact that they were still teenagers; kids, really. It came with the fact that they were both boys just trying to fumble their way through some kind of relationship.

He felt like such a kid.

(S)

Yuuta woke up to sore legs and the thought that today was Sunday and he ought to have asked Atobe to meet him in the afternoon. Instead, he'd told him he'd be busy and had come home instead, intending to stick around until after dinner before going back to school.

He wanted to talk to his brother actually. He'd have done so the night before, but it just didn't feel right with Tezuka in the house. Maybe it would be easier to talk to Yumiko about it? But then, Yumiko already knew about Atobe, really, and his brother… Well, Yuuta still hadn't told Syuusuke, and even though he hadn't really spelt everything out to Yumiko, he'd told her that he liked Atobe at least.

He rubbed at his legs, deciding to get out of bed.

He fumbled the handle of his door when he opened it and stumbled as he walked down the hallway to his brother's room. The bathroom door was shut and the shower was going, so he figured it would be Tezuka in there.

Perhaps now was a good time to catch his brother anyway.

His boxers were twisted from tossing a lot during the night, and he'd accidentally matched the wrong buttons to holes when he'd changed his shirt the night before. Apparently his mother thought he ought to get rid of his old t-shirts since they were either too stretched or too worn to function as pyjamas now, and she'd left him little choice in sleepwear.

Yuuta hoped Tezuka didn't come out of the bathroom soon, because bumping into Tezuka Kunimitsu while he was wandering around the house in an old flannel shirt and a pair of boxers really wasn't on the list of ways Yuuta wanted to meet the guy.

He probably wouldn't go to the street courts later, he thought. He'd planned to be here until dinner and he wanted some of Yumiko's blueberry pie, since he'd asked her to make it.

"Aniki?" he called out, pushing open the door.

There was a bit of a thump on the other side and a yell and Yuuta peered around the door, only to realise Tezuka had been about to open it.

He'd just banged it into Tezuka's nose… which meant that his brother was the one in the shower… and now Tezuka was standing in front of him in his pyjamas and looking like he had a tender spot on his nose.

Yuuta stared, horrified.

Oh god. He'd probably just broken Tezuka Kunimitsu's nose.

(S)

"I thought you weren't coming," Atsushi blurted out, surprising Yuuta.

"Huh? Ah, right…" he mumbled, avoiding looking at him and Yanagisawa. It was kind of embarrassing to admit the reason he was here at this time was because Tezuka's nose, while not broken, fractured or really damaged, had taken on a funny shade of purple because Yuuta had hit him with the door that hard.

Luckily he hadn't been wearing his glasses or they'd have broken.

Yuuta didn't really feel like staying in the house any longer, so he'd taken the early train back and dropped his bag off at the dorms, only to be told by Hanashima at the front desk that he'd find Atsushi and Yanagisawa at the street courts. Mizuki was out shopping and Akazawa was with him.

"Fuji-kun!"

Yuuta blinked, seeing the trio of Kamio, Ibu and An coming towards them.

Yanagisawa frowned. "Oh yeah, that stupid redhead is here too, da ne," he said, pointing his finger over his shoulder.

Yuuta gave half a smile. Trust Yanagisawa to be so enthusiastic at this time of the afternoon. Atsushi looked a little sleepy actually, as though he'd eaten too much at lunch. "So what time does the tournament start?" Yuuta asked.

Yanagisawa grinned. "Five minutes. If you want to sign up, you have to do it now."

Yuuta peered around Yanagisawa, seeing a large group of players lingering around the side of one of the courts. They looked like a muddled bunch though he did recognise a few other St Rudolph boys. He wondered why Mizuki wasn't here.

"Mizuki said he couldn't be bothered wasting his talent on second-rate competition," Yanagisawa mentioned, as though reading Yuuta's mind. "I think he's still hanging out for your brother."

Yuuta rolled his eyes.

"We're playing doubles," Atsushi said, stating the obvious. "I think Tachibana An wants you to play mixed doubles with her actually, but if you don't want Kamio to punch you, you'd better say no."

Yuuta snorted. "Like I'd play doub…" he cut himself off and winced as An grinned at him, waving a water bottle as she reached the group.

"Have you warmed up yet?"

Yuuta shook his head.

"Good. You can warm up with me. Shinji and Akira are playing doubles."

"Are not," they both chorused at the same time, apparently intent on playing singles no matter what.

"If I can't play mixed doubles with An-chan, then I'm not playing any doubles," Kamio declared loudly, glaring at Yuuta, who shuddered. He did have to grin though, at the way An gave a look to Kamio which just shut him up.

He was glad he'd come out. An was fun to be around – when she wasn't touching him anyway – and it was pretty funny seeing Yanagisawa and Kamio already giving each other dirty looks again.

Ibu watched them, shaking his head slightly. "You know, I still don't see why Akira's so worried about Fuji-kun. It isn't like he's Atobe, is it?"

Yuuta glanced at him quickly, Atobe's name surprising him. Why was Ibu talking about Atobe?

Ibu continued, "… since Fuji-kun didn't try anything weird and it's not as though getting mad really helps when it didn't help things with Atobe and I don't think Fuji-kun's nearly as bad as Atobe, and really, An-chan can surely-"

"What about Atobe?" Yuuta interrupted quickly. Ibu's droning voice was annoying him, but Yuuta wanted to know why he was talking about Atobe. Did he know about them? About his dating Atobe?

He felt nervous and jittery, awkward and on edge; defensive. He was conscious of Yanagisawa and Atsushi beside him, and he saw Atsushi's movement out of the corner of his eye. He was tapping on his watch, telling Yuuta he only had a few minutes until registration closed for the tournament.

Yuuta ignored him, concentrating on the look on Ibu's face.

An glanced at Yuuta and he returned her look quickly, curious as to what she knew. He hadn't talked to Atobe enough lately and he'd spent too much time thinking over the way things _could_ go and the way they _could_ be, and it was doing his head in.

Ibu nearly started mumbling. "Atobe's-"

Kamio cut him off, snorting, putting a hand on Ibu's arm as he leaned against him a bit. "Atobe liked An-chan."

Yuuta's stomach was turning. "Oh," he said, because he was relieved none of them knew about Atobe and him… But when had Atobe liked Tachibana An? Why didn't he know? Was it recently? Did Atobe still like her? Had he taken her out to dinner as well? Did they go to the same places?

He wanted to ask Atobe himself, but he wasn't here and An was.

"Anyway," An said, shaking her head. "We saw him yesterday. He doesn't like me anymore so you don't need to talk about it; it was just stupid."

Yuuta's chest felt tight. So Atobe really had liked her sometime.

"You saw him… yesterday?" he asked. "Was there something on?"

Kamio looked away, looking pink in the face. He wasn't about to tell Yuuta they'd started off trying to follow him and had ended up getting lost. Besides, he couldn't see how any of this mattered to Yuuta. Why didn't he just hurry up and register before he missed the cut off? The tournament was being organised by some kids from some nearby high school – not exactly famous for tennis, but word had gone around and there were a lot of decent players here now – and they weren't exactly going to wait for some private school kids to register themselves so they could start.

Yuuta was bothering him, though half of that was the fact that An was paying so much attention to him. "What's it to you anyway? Do you know Atobe?" he finally asked.

Yuuta could feel the palms of his hands getting sweaty. "No… I…" he fumbled, glancing instinctively at Yanagisawa and Atsushi, but he knew they were probably just as confused as Kamio, Ibu and An. He hadn't told them; didn't want to tell them, couldn't tell them… He hadn't told anyone really.

An tilted her head slightly, looking at Yuuta carefully. "Atobe was on a date with a girl," she said, shaking her head. "I don't know who she was, since we couldn't see her, but I think she looked like an older girl. They looked pretty serious."

"Well, isn't that what those other two said?" Kamio butted in. "They said Atobe had been seeing her for something like two months, didn't they? Wouldn't you have to be serious after two whole months?"

"You could have gone in," Ibu suggested, taking the conversation back. "Of course you couldn't see her face. She was facing the other way and I can't see through peoples' heads. If I could though, it might not be so bad since I wouldn't have to worry about sitting behind Suzuki in maths and I might actually be able to read the board for once. I mean, really it-"

"Shinji," An said sharply.

Ibu paused, noticing she was looking at Yuuta and then turning his attention to Yuuta as well.

"Yuuta?" Atsushi questioned, glancing at Yanagisawa. He looked lost for words, so Atsushi touched Yuuta's shoulder. "Hey, you okay?"

"Yeah… I'm fine…" Yuuta tried to say, but the words came out strangled sounding and stupid. It hurt just getting them out. His chest felt constricted and tight and his throat felt hot and his eyes felt wet and he _wasn't_ going to cry. He just _wasn't_.

He sniffed, trying not to let his nose run. Stupid, stupid, _stupid_, he chided himself, but it didn't help. He knew he wasn't crying yet, but he was close, and he could feel the heat in his chest and the ache at his throat. He didn't know why everything hurt so much; why something someone said just made him feel like shit like this, like every insecurity he'd ever felt was just coming back to him and all the trust he'd put in Atobe – in whatever the hell it was that they were supposed to have – was just being thrown back in his face.

It wasn't the first time he'd heard it. It wasn't even the first time he'd doubted that he was good enough for Atobe and it definitely wasn't the first time he'd wondered why Atobe would even be interested in him at all.

All the doubts in the back of his mind were coming to the surface – why Atobe had ever even bothered talking to him in the first place…

Did he get something out of it? Was it all some kind of sick joke? A dare? A prank? A kind of bet who could talk the stupid Catholic school kid into believing someone like Atobe would ever even look seriously at him? Would Atobe do that to him?

Was he just some kind of object Atobe thought was funny? Was he just amusement?

What the hell was going on?

Yuuta wanted to give up trying to understand what Atobe was thinking. He just couldn't second-guess him anymore and now he was standing at the street courts and he was just making a complete idiot out of himself and he just wished he was at home again.

He didn't want to look like this; didn't want Yanagisawa or Atsushi or Kamio or Ibu or An to see him looking so stupid.

"Yuuta," Atsushi said again.

Yuuta realised Atsushi's hands were on his shoulders and he looked up, realising how close Atsushi's face was to his.

"What?" he asked. His voice came out sounding weak, so he repeated himself.

Atsushi gave an awkward smile. "You… You don't have to play today if you don't want, you know? Is there…" he stopped, uncertain.

Truthfully, he didn't know how to deal with Yuuta when he was like this and they weren't in the safety or privacy of the dorms.

Yuuta looked shell-shocked and to anyone who didn't know him, he only looked shocked, but Atsushi and Yanagisawa both recognised the look on his face. The tight fists at his sides were easier to notice, but it was the look in his eyes that gave the game away.

Yuuta realised Ibu was talking. He was always talking. His voice was droning on and on and on about nothing.

His own mind had suddenly gone blank.

"Do you want to go and get something to drink?" Atsushi asked, adding a little more tactfully, "You don't look that well right now."

"There's a café around the corner, da ne," Yanagisawa piped up, sticking his head in next to Yuuta's and Atsushi's.

Yuuta blinked.

Café.

Café.

The word never failed to remind him of Atobe now.

"No… I… I just…" he muttered, "I'm going to go and see someone." He swallowed hard, trying to fake a bit of a smile.

It didn't work on Yanagisawa or Atsushi. He could see that easily by he couldn't care less; he just wanted to get away from them. He wanted to see Atobe and he wanted to do it now, before his resolve weakened.

He lifted Atsushi's hands off his shoulders gently and stepped backwards, shuffling his tennis bag on his shoulder. He'd have apologised to An for not sticking around, but at that moment, there was a loud voice yelling out that the draws were starting and registration was over, and Yuuta took the moment to turn and run down the steps of the street court.

His nose was running now, but at least he hadn't started crying, even if his eyes were a bit watery. He hoped Atsushi hadn't seen them.

He jerked his hands into his pockets, but they came out empty. His mother had cleared out the tissues from his pockets when she'd washed these shorts the night before, so he looked around to see that no one was watching and then wiped his nose on his arm.

It was grotty; he knew that, but letting it run was worse and he didn't care for pretentious manners anyway.

Atobe's number was at the top of his contacts list. It was easy enough to press the buttons and listen to the dial tone on the other end of the line.

It was harder to say the words that he wanted to say though.

He nearly hung up when he heard Atobe's voice answering. A fresh wave of anger and hurt went through him and he struggled to keep his voice level, not even letting Atobe finish talking before he interrupted.

"Atobe-san…? I… want to see you. Where are you now?"

.tbc.


	16. Chapter 15

Notes: Last chapter:D Actually there's an omake afterwards XD but I hope you enjoy this one. :D I actually really loved writing this one a lot. Also, I believe Atobe's driver actually ought to call him 'Keigo-bocchama', but nevermind that XD

Archive: No.

**About Us**

Chapter 15

By Miki

Atobe woke up with a crick in his neck. It was a kink about the size of a golf ball and it hurt as though he'd just been hit by one.

His legs were sore too; he'd been cramped into his chair for the entire night and though the cushions he'd propped his head up with were filled with the finest feathers and were covered with silk, they really didn't do much in the way of supporting the muscles in his neck properly. Not to mention the silk had made turned his hair slightly static and he could feel it sticking up in awkward tufts and strands. He supposed one had to take the good with the bad when he had such fine hair, but he still tried to pat it down as he sat up and looked around.

He almost felt disappointed to see the blankets on his legs, because it meant that someone – he wasn't sure who – had been in here and noticed him asleep, though they hadn't bothered to move him. Was it really too much to ask to simply carry him upstairs to his bed where he deserved to sleep, rather than leaving him here to tangle himself in knots in the chair?

He hadn't meant to fall asleep properly. The book he'd been sulking over was on the floor. He must have dropped it when he'd started dozing, trying to make the time pass faster before the guests would hurry up and leave the house.

He stood up and stretched, trying to work the pain from his muscles, turning his chin left and right and practising the exercises he'd been taught. It was rather bothersome having to call his physio so early on a Sunday morning, but he supposed he'd have to ask someone to do it for him. He wasn't about to spend the rest of the week with a crooked spine.

His clothes were wrinkled; bow tie still around his neck, though he had pulled the knot loose, and his shirt looking as though it had just come out of the washing machine.

He opened the door of the library, glancing up and down the hallway. At this time of morning, it was rare that someone wasn't awake, but as he crept back up to his bedroom, he didn't see anyone.

Even his father's cat, so often lounging around in one of the sitting rooms, was no where to be seen. Atobe couldn't help but despise the horrid animal for all of its awful white fur and for its claws – it had sunk them into him once as a child and he still hadn't forgiven it – yet he wondered where it could possibly have gone.

The coldness of the house itself almost made him feel a little lonely.

(S)

"Atobe-sama."

Atobe opened his eyes and stared at the floor. "Yes?" He recognised his driver's voice but he couldn't see why the man was interrupting his physio session. For goodness' sakes, was it really so hard to just leave him in peace and quiet for an hour?

His back was still feeling the effects of his night's sleep in the chair. The muscle spasms hadn't quite ceased, though the pain in his neck was fast disappearing.

"What?" he asked loudly, tired and having to force his voice above a mumble.

"You have a phone call on your mobile, sir."

Atobe twitched involuntarily, the hands massaging his back hitting a sore spot that sent sparks down his spine. "I don't want to hear about it," he snapped, in pain again. "Can't you see I'm busy?"

"It's from a person called Yuu, sir. I thought you would like to know."

Atobe nearly yelped in pain as he sat up quickly, steadying himself on his knees but managing to aggravate the muscles in his back again.

"Give it to me," he ordered quickly, holding out his hand.

He ignored the surprised look from his physio and tried not to feel too silly, kneeling forwards on his knees on a treatment table, answering Yuuta's phone call.

He supposed it was natural that his driver realised Yuuta wasn't just anybody. He probably had a vague idea of what went on between the two of them, and considering the fact that he'd been there when Atobe had kissed Yuuta outside his house… well, Atobe figured he ought to be grateful in one sense for someone who could put two and two together and make four.

"Hello, Atobe spea-"

There was a clack on the other end of the phone and Atobe panicked. Had Yuuta already hung up? He pulled the phone from his ear and glanced at it, but the call was still connected.

Yuuta was already talking by the time Atobe put the phone back to his ear.

"…be-san…? I… want to see you. Where are you now?"

Atobe frowned, not bothering to try to hide the fact he was in a hurry as he got off the table quickly and hitched his track pants up back above his hips. He'd pushed them down to give the physio better access to his lower back, but he really had no intention of carrying on his conversation in the room and it would have been inappropriate to walk out of the room without covering himself up.

He stepped out into the hallway quickly, glad for the fact that it was a Sunday and this clinic only operated for half a day. It meant there were less staff hanging around looking for something to do.

Yuuta's voice sounded strained and odd. Atobe couldn't think of any reasons why though. Why did he sound stressed? They hadn't arranged to meet at all so it wasn't as though Atobe was late to see him, and wasn't he supposed to be at home anyway? Why was there so much background noise?

"I'm at the physio's," Atobe answered, walking down the hallway a little. There were offices further down so he kept his voice low, less out of consideration than because he didn't want people overhearing his conversation. "Where are you? I thought you were at home this weekend."

"I… I was."

"Yuuta?" Atobe questioned. He was cold all of a sudden. He ought to have put on his shirt, but that would have taken too much time and he might have missed answering Yuuta's call.

He thought he heard a sniffle on the other end of the phone and he paused in his movement, pressing the phone closer to his ear and frowning. "Yuuta?" he asked again. "Where are you?"

"Huh?" Yuuta said, sounding as though he'd lost himself for a moment. "I'm just in town. I mean, I'm at Bacci. Can you come and meet me here?"

Atobe turned and walked back up the hallway. "Sure. Now? I'll be there in fifteen minutes."

"I'll wait for you then."

Yuuta hung up without another word.

Atobe debated calling home for a moment. He'd come out of the house only intending to see his physio and no one else. There was nothing particularly wrong with seeing Yuuta while he was wearing track pants and a hooded sweater, but he'd have preferred to be a little more dressed at least. He cursed himself for not wearing something decent and bringing his track pants to change into, yet he knew he didn't really have time to lament over it.

Bacci was the café he often went to with Kabaji; the place he'd been at when he'd first noticed Yuuta. It was a bit of an odd café in some ways; the name was Italian but the food was a mixture of different Western traditions and had Atobe not liked their breakfasts so much, he might have been incensed that the waiters had trouble explaining the difference between a pancake and a crepe.

It was only about ten minutes away though and Atobe had told Yuuta he'd be fifteen.

He walked back into the room, excused himself from the rest of his appointment as he pulled his shirt and sweater back on, spent a few minutes fixing his hair in front of the mirror and had his driver fix up his account.

He crossed his legs in the back of the limousine, jiggling his foot restlessly as he wondered what on earth Yuuta sounded so strange for. It wasn't that Atobe wasn't happy to see him; he'd been wanting to see him for what felt like ages, but he didn't like Yuuta's tone of voice. He'd sounded upset, and being unhappy wasn't something Atobe associated with Yuuta.

He might have grumpy patches, and on the odd occasion he did actually look as though he was sulking or as though he was about to lose his temper, but he never sounded upset.

He was standing outside the café; instantly recognisable in a white polo shirt and a pair of shorts, his tennis bag slung over one shoulder.

Atobe narrowed his eyes as the car approached, trying to make out the expression on his face.

"Don't bother parking," he instructed, realising his driver was about to drive past the shop front in order to be able to stop.

Atobe opened his door as soon as the vehicle had come to a stop, walking between two parked cars to get to the kerb where Yuuta was waiting.

His nose looked a bit pink, Atobe realised.

(S)

Yuuta watched the limousine coming to a stop. The noise of the streets and of the traffic was lost on him as he stared straight ahead, trying not to meet Atobe's eyes as he got out and shut the door.

He felt almost sick with nervousness and a kind of dread, working its way up from his stomach to his chest and throat. He'd been waiting for more than five minutes now, and he'd thought over what Oshitari and Mukahi had said, as well as what Kamio, Ibu and An had been talking about, and the tiny speck of doubt in his mind had snowballed completely.

He almost expected Atobe to just confirm what he was thinking; that he hadn't ever taken any of this seriously, that he already had a girlfriend, that Yuuta was just… just what? A whole lot of curiosity gone wrong?

Atobe's clothes surprised him though, and he ended up staring, just like he'd told himself he wouldn't do.

"Have you been waiting long, Yuuta?"

Yuuta swallowed. "Not really."

Atobe stepped closer. Yuuta seemed to be avoiding looking him in the eyes and Atobe could see a slight pinkness to his eyes, which made him wonder if Yuuta had been crying. He lifted up his hand to touch Yuuta's shoulder, but Yuuta stepped away quickly instead.

"I want to go to the park. Is that okay with you?"

Atobe nodded, pulling his hand back quickly, a feeling of apprehension growing inside him. Yuuta's tone was cold but his voice still sounded the same as it had on the phone.

Atobe suddenly wondered if he'd said anything to Yumiko yesterday, and yet he could only pull blanks. He couldn't remember having talked about Yuuta much since she'd mostly just asking him personal questions instead, but he didn't know why else Yuuta would be acting so strangely.

Was it something to do with Mizuki? Something to do with tennis perhaps?

Atobe wanted to ask him, but he bit back the question, watching Yuuta carefully instead. He was quick to turn and start walking towards the park and Atobe had to follow him, never having been to the parks around here before. They were public parks and not terribly convenient for him anyway.

The park was close by. Atobe almost wondered why he hadn't ever noticed it there before, though he supposed he really had no reason to.

"Did you have training this morning?" he asked, trying to start a conversation.

Yuuta was silent, shuffling his bag as though in recognition of the question, but he didn't bother answering.

Atobe frowned, slightly annoyed.

He'd waited for long enough to see Yuuta, he could at least make an effort to be civil, even if he was annoyed about something, couldn't he? Yuuta was making him feel awkward, trailing after him and not knowing what he was thinking, and it wasn't as though it was something he had done.

They passed through the gates of the park, Yuuta pausing and looking around for an empty space.

Atobe pushed a hand into his pocket, unsure what to do. Had Yuuta been anyone else, he probably would have snapped already, but the look on Yuuta's face almost gave him a feeling of not wanting to know what was wrong, just in case it really was something to do with Yumiko, because as much as he knew Yuuta grumbled about his siblings, he knew where Yuuta's loyalties lay and it made him feel strange and jealous and silly.

"I… want to ask you about something," Yuuta said, glancing at Atobe's face for a moment and then looking away again.

Atobe's heart lurched, the fingers of his right hand fiddling with the inside of his pocket. Yuuta looked serious; a look of earnest concentration on his face as though he didn't really know what it was that he wanted to say and it worried Atobe.

"The thing is…" Yuuta started, "I… I don't know what we're… doing," he said, mumbling his words, looking up and meeting Atobe's gaze. He rubbed at his arms, crossing them even though it wasn't anywhere near cold and they were standing in the sunshine.

Atobe stared at him, not understanding what he was saying. "What do you mean, you don't know what we're doing?" he asked, frowning in confusion. What did Yuuta mean by that?

Yuuta frowned. "I mean I don't know what's going on," he said louder. "I mean, with you… with us… You know what I mean, right?"

"What do you mean… I don't… know what you mean," Atobe repeated helplessly, confused and almost not wanting to understand the words Yuuta was saying. They were dating, weren't they? Was that what Yuuta meant? Had Atobe missed something somewhere? What on earth was Yuuta talking about?

"I thought we agreed we were dating," he said, trying not to stumble over the word. It was embarrassing saying it somehow.

He could feel the blood rushing to his cheeks even as Yuuta looked at him sharply. "Are we?" he questioned, his voice suddenly acquiring a hard edge.

Atobe was taken aback.

"How can we be dating?" Yuuta questioned louder, his hands suddenly scrunched into the sides of his shorts. "I heard-" he started. Then he looked away, dropping his eyes. He swallowed hard, nearly swallowing the next few words. "I heard you already had a girlfriend, so what does that make me?"

Atobe felt as though he'd just been slapped.

His mouth refused to move; his body too, just stood still even though he wanted to form the right words; say the right thing; ask Yuuta why on earth he'd think that, where he'd get the idea from, why he doubted him. Why did he doubt him? Why…

Yuuta stared stubbornly at the ground, refusing to look at him again. He kept his arms crossed in front of him until his bag slipped from his shoulder and he moved to drop it on the ground.

Atobe watched him move, desperately trying to work out what he should say; what he needed to say. The words were just jumbled in his head though – a mixture of denial and shock and frustration and hurt. Hurt because he didn't understand why Yuuta didn't trust him and hurt because he couldn't understand where Yuuta would get an idea like that from and why he'd believe it. Hurt because it meant Yuuta didn't even understand how much Atobe actually liked him. Hurt because he hadn't liked someone like this for so long and hurt because he thought Yuuta should have known it.

He _should_ have understood how Atobe felt. He _ought_ to have understood.

Atobe didn't like just anyone. How come Yuuta couldn't understand that?

"Why aren't you saying anything?" Yuuta asked, his voice quiet.

Atobe picked up a waver in it and he stared, trying to see the look on Yuuta's face, but Yuuta was still looking at the ground.

"What do you want me to say?" Atobe asked. He didn't know what else to say. He couldn't understand how he was supposed to defend himself when he couldn't even understand what he'd done for Yuuta to accuse him of something like this.

"I don't understand where you'd get an idea like that," he said, trying to get himself to feel anything – _anything_ but hurt. He wanted to be angry with Yuuta, but he just couldn't. He just felt empty.

Was he the only one who'd thought they'd actually understood each other?

"What do you mean, _where_ I'd get the idea," Yuuta spat back. "It's true, isn't it? I didn't just make it up, you know! If it's not true, why don't you say something?"

Atobe closed his eyes, running a hand through his hair, tilting his head back. He could feel a hot kind of swelling in his chest; something he hadn't felt for a while. His throat felt hot and his legs felt numb.

"I don't… It's not true," he said weakly. What else could he say? "I like you."

Yuuta looked at him and Atobe realised he looked as though he was trying not to cry. "Well tell me why everyone else thinks you have a girlfriend then," he managed to get out, biting the inside of his lip.

"I don't know," Atobe groaned, rubbing at his forehead with a hand. "There's only…"

He stopped. He wanted to say Yuuta was the only person he liked. Then he paused, trying to tell himself to think things through logically. He rubbed at his temple, stressed and under pressure and acutely aware of the fact that Yuuta was suddenly sniffling.

"Here," he said, pulling a tissue from his pocket and handing it to him.

"I don't need it," Yuuta snapped, sniffling again and trying miserably to hide the fact that his nose was running.

Atobe tried to get his voice to come out clearly; tried to project it so he didn't sound so much like a kid who had no clue why he felt so upset and hurt and lost. Like a kid who couldn't understand why his castle of sand had just collapsed.

"I'm only seeing you," he said, trying to think back over the past few weeks. "I'm only seeing you and I'm not lying… Why can't you believe me?"

Yuuta bit his lip. "But how do I know you're not lying?"

"Do you trust me?"

Yuuta tightened his arms around himself. "I don't know. I think so, but… I've heard other things…"

"From who?" Atobe snapped, anger finally flaring.

"Does it matter?" Yuuta snapped back, incensed. Why was Atobe trying to play him for a fool? Did he really think he was that stupid? That gullible? That he was going to let himself be made fun of?

The look on Atobe's face scared him for a moment though. He almost felt his resolve waver under it.

"I heard it from… From Oshitari and Mukahi and from Tachibana An… and Ibu and Kamio…" he said, finally getting out the names. He stared at Atobe, needing to gauge his reaction.

Atobe looked stunned.

"You heard… that I had a girlfriend?"

Yuuta rolled his eyes angrily, trying to ignore the lump that was welling up in his throat all over again. The longer this went on, the more he felt like an idiot. People were probably staring too, and god forbid anyone he knew saw him here like this.

"They said you've been going out for months," he continued. "They said you're serious about her and that you went on a date yesterday, at the time you told me you were too busy to meet up with me," he spat out.

Atobe's reaction wasn't what he expected at all.

"Huh?" he blurted out loudly.

Yuuta knew it. That was it. It was true; Atobe's expression said everything, as though he'd just been caught out. "See?" he said, reaching down to pick up his bag. "I don't really care whatever we were doing before, but I don't want to see you anymore so…"

"Yuuta."

"What?" he snapped, hand on his bag strap.

Atobe stared down at him, a look of exasperation on his face, his hand grasping at tufts of his hair.

Yuuta looked up at him, remembering for a moment why he liked Atobe so much. He bit the inside of this lip again, trying to tell himself to forget about it. He wasn't about to keep on liking someone who couldn't even be honest with him. Someone who was so damn annoying and self-centred and selfish and so horribly egotistic and so spoilt and so far removed from everyone Yuuta had ever called a friend before – someone who was so horribly used to getting his own way and taking what he wanted and someone who made him feel so strange and unsure of himself and so hot from the inside out and so… so unlike anyone else.

He shook his head, as though trying to shake the thoughts from his head, and picked up his bag, preparing to walk off.

"Yuuta, wait," Atobe said, his voice louder and stronger this time.

Yuuta didn't want to hear it.

"Yuuta. That was your sister."

"Huh?" Yuuta blurted out, his bag falling off his shoulder. "What are you talking about? What was my sister?"

"The woman I was with yesterday… At the café," Atobe insisted. "Yumiko – I was with your sister Yumiko yesterday afternoon because she wanted to talk to me about you," he rushed on, trying to explain everything. "I saw Mukahi and Oshitari yesterday while I was with her. That must be it."

Yuuta blinked, his brain trying to absorb the information Atobe was throwing at him suddenly. "But…"

His head was spinning. "But that wasn't… But I heard them talking about your girlfriend ages ago…"

Atobe scowled. "Who? Who's my girlfriend then? What would those two idiots know?"

Yuuta swallowed. He hadn't ever heard a name. "I don't know," he admitted quietly, ashamed.

He wanted to believe Atobe so badly… He just… was afraid of believing him.

Atobe huffed, frustrated. "I told you, Yuuta. You're the only person I like."

Yuuta closed his eyes, rubbing at them with the tips of his fingers awkwardly. He wanted to hear Atobe say it again. Maybe if he said it again, Yuuta could try to wipe Oshitari and Mukahi's words from his head, and stop thinking about what Ibu and Kamio had said… Stop thinking about Atobe with someone else and stop worrying that what they said was true. Stop worrying that he didn't know what was going on and that he was just being played with. Stop worrying that if he liked Atobe like this, he was going to end up hurt.

"But I don't…" he trailed off helplessly.

Atobe said the girl they'd seen him with was his sister. It almost added up with what Ibu and Tachibana An had said, but then what had Mukahi and Oshitari been talking about the first time Yuuta had heard of it?

"I don't know what Mukahi and Oshitari said to you, but they were wrong," Atobe said, as though reading Yuuta's mind. "And I was with your sister yesterday afternoon and you can ask her right now if you want."

Atobe pulled his phone from his pocket, but Yuuta winced, reaching out to hold his wrist to stop him from dialling the buttons. "It's okay…"

Atobe huffed. "It's not okay."

Yuuta sniffled, almost smiling at the irritation in Atobe's voice. God, he sounded so… so pompous sometimes.

"I…" he swallowed. "I believe you."

He didn't really know if he meant the words. He wanted to, but he couldn't help the tiny bit of lingering doubt in the back of his mind. He still couldn't understand why Atobe would bother liking someone like him when it seemed like he could have anyone else, or even nobody at all… and it bothered him.

Atobe hesitated, watching Yuuta sniffling again. His nose was running again and Atobe couldn't really blame him. The anger he'd felt a few minutes before had faded into a feeling of warmth throughout his body. He still couldn't understand why Yuuta had jumped to the conclusions he had, yet a part of him realised it was perhaps his own fault.

"I'm sorry," he said quietly, stepping closer again.

This time Yuuta didn't step away, though he did flinch a little as Atobe touched his hands to his shoulders. Instead of letting him go though, Atobe pulled him closer, not caring that Yuuta stumbled and squirmed, protesting.

"Yuuta," Atobe said, after a moment.

Yuuta stopped trying to push him away. "What?" he mumbled, cheek pressed against Atobe's shoulder.

"Pick a number between one and two hundred."

Yuuta was caught off guard, trying to figure out how numbers were related to their conversation.

"I…" He'd been about to say he didn't know, but he sighed and closed his eyes instead. He wondered who was walking past them right now. Had anyone he knew seen him like this? Seen him with Atobe? Did he really care right now?

He suspected the answer was no.

Atobe was warm. He smelt a little like cologne, though perhaps it was just the product he used in his hair, or perhaps his hair shampoo. It was a nice smell though. Yuuta supposed he smelt like sweat, but Atobe didn't seem to care.

"Yuuta, number," Atobe prompted again.

"Uh… a hundred…" Yuuta paused. "A hundred and seventy three… Why?"

Atobe didn't answer, but Yuuta felt his fingers in his hair a moment later.

A moment after that, he also felt his nose running again and he sniffed, knowing that letting it drip on Atobe's brand name sweater really wouldn't go down well.

"Um… Can I have that tissue now?"

Atobe reluctantly let go of Yuuta, fished his packet of tissues from his pocket again and handed it to Yuuta, looking away as he blew his nose and rubbed the backs of his hands against his eyes.

"Why a hundred and seventy three?" he asked.

"Uh…" Yuuta wondered if it was obvious he'd been crying. He'd only cried a tiny bit. Hardly at all, but that didn't make it any less embarrassing. "I don't know. Why do you need a number?"

Atobe straightened up, stretching his arms. "No reason," he smiled.

Yuuta stood awkwardly, looking at him. "Okay," he said, and picked up his bag.

"So are we all sorted out?" Atobe asked.

Yuuta felt his cheeks turning pinker than they already were. "Yeah," he grumbled, trying not to look at Atobe.

"I'm sorry," he apologised again.

Atobe peered at him closely. "You… Do you like me, Yuuta?"

Yuuta gave a wary nod.

"Then don't apologise," Atobe said, and they walked back to the café together.

(S)

"Okay… Lastly," Atobe said, eyeing Jirou with a slight smile, "after practice today, we're going for ice cream."

Jirou grinned back at him. "At the usual place?" he asked, looking eager.

He fiddled with his racquet, a bundle of excited and happy energy since he'd just woken up from a nap and was eager to get out and play tennis. The rest of the regulars looked bored of standing around, though they'd only been listening to Atobe read Sakaki's plan for just a few minutes.

Atobe nodded, running his finger down the list of items in front of him to check if he'd missed anything.

"Ah… That's right," he paused, tapping his finger at the last item on the clipboard, something he'd added on after receiving the plan from Sakaki-kantoku. "Oshitari and Mukahi."

Gakuto gave Atobe a slightly curious look. Oshitari merely smirked at him. "Yes, Atobe? Is there something you'd like to inform us of?"

Atobe twitched in irritation, and then gave a controlled smirk. "Indeed, Oshitari. I'm informing you that you'll be running laps for the entirety of today's practice as penalty for interfering in personal matters which you needn't have stuck your noses into and which-"

"What did we do?" Gakuto asked loudly, snorting.

Atobe smiled. "It's not about what you _did_, it's about what you're going to _do_."

Shishido looked rather smug beside Ootori, but Atobe ignored the look on his face, knowing Shishido didn't actually know what Gakuto and Oshitari were getting their punishment for. He wasn't about to tell him either.

"One hundred and seventy three laps, you two. That's all. And please make sure you're finished by the time we finish practice. I expect you to come out with the rest of us for ice cream."

(S)

"Why do we have to hurry?" Ootori whispered to Kabaji.

Kabaji didn't answer, though Jirou did.

"I think we're meeting someone," he answered, awake for once in the backseat of Atobe's limousine.

Atobe pretended he couldn't hear the conversations going on next to him. Oshitari and Gakuto, of course, were being slow about running their laps and were still going.

They'd have to walk to the ice cream parlour, not that Atobe cared. He figured that after the mess they'd caused, which he still hadn't quite gotten to the bottom of – though he had his suspicions about where it had originated – they could keep running for the rest of the week, as far as he was concerned.

"Meeting someone?" Ootori whispered back to Jirou. "Meeting who? Aren't we all here?"

Jirou cast a glance at Atobe, deciding to keep his mouth shut. "Secret," he smiled, wriggling impatiently in his seat and smiling. "I'll give you a clue though."

Shishido leaned against Ootori. "Clue? Okay?"

"It's someone you think you know, but you don't know," he grinned, amused. "Oh… and… say cheese."

Atobe cringed, resisting the urge to hide his slight smile.

(S)

The waitress led them to their table, having reserved one of the larger ones by the window.

Atobe looked almost disappointed when he saw it.

"Something wrong?" Shishido asked.

It felt odd without Gakuto and Oshitari here. Usually Gakuto would be clamouring to get the best seat; the one facing the window at an angle so he could watch the people going past. Instead, the five of them – Jirou, Ootori, Kabaji, Atobe and he – just stared at the chairs. There were eight set out.

"Isn't that one chair too many?" Shishido asked loudly.

"We're meeting someone, remember, Shishido-senpai?" Ootori whispered.

Atobe sat down at the chair with the best view of the window. "Well, what are you waiting for?" he questioned.

Kabaji sat down next to him and the rest of them followed.

"So… uh…"

Atobe ignored Shishido.

Ootori hushed him again, and Jirou just proceeded to muse about the menu, aloud.

(S)

"There's something wrong with Atobe," Gakuto grumbled, half out of breath as he ran along the footpath.

"Tell me about it," Oshitari grumbled back, for once abandoning witty retorts and his usual sense of humour in favour of whingeing with his friend.

They hurried along, halfway to the ice cream parlour when they recognised a familiar figure peering into a shop window. Atobe forgotten, they watched as the figure stepped back and happened to glance their way, glasses glinting.

"Isn't that Seigaku's Inui?" Gakuto asked.

"It is," Oshitari smirked. "I wonder what he's doing here."

Gakuto grinned. Stirring up trouble with Atobe was no fun these days. They needed someone new to amuse themselves with.

"Seigaku's Inui! What are you doing here?" he asked as they slowed to greet him.

(S)

Shishido glanced at Atobe, but he seemed busy staring out the window, so he picked up another of the table's menus and flicked through it, bored. He knew he'd just choose the same flavours he always chose and Ootori would probably choose his usual chocolate mint or strawberry swirl, so looking at the menu was a little pointless.

He glanced at the window as a blur rushed past it; someone in a rush to get somewhere, he supposed. Then he heard the shop's bell jingle as the door swung opened and Atobe stood up.

Shishido closed his menu. He hadn't noticed Gakuto and Oshitari coming in, so he turned his head to see a boy with mouse-brown hair approaching their table, looking a bit out of place in a St Rudolph uniform.

He frowned, the face vaguely familiar though he couldn't quite remember why.

"Yuuta," Atobe smiled.

Ootori looked as though he was going to fall off his seat.

"Hi… Atobe-san…" Yuuta smiled back, his eyes darting to the table full of Hyoutei regulars as he swallowed back his nervousness.

"I thought maybe you got lost," Atobe teased.

"I didn't," Yuuta retorted, snorting.

"You got lost in my house," Atobe reminded him.

Yuuta flushed pink. "That was different," he frowned. "Your house is like a maze, you know."

Jirou was beaming, Shishido noted. Ootori was hanging onto the edge of the table. Kabaji looked totally nonplussed, and Gakuto and Oshitari were racing in the door, late.

Shishido secretly hoped that would earn them even more penalty laps next practice.

Atobe noticed them coming in and paused, hand touching Yuuta's arm as they stood next to each other. Giving a raised eyebrow to the two latecomers, he pointed to two of the empty seats at the table from where he stood, his point perfectly clear. Opening his mouth to speak, he paused, suddenly realising he wasn't quite sure how to introduce Yuuta. He'd practised it last night, of course, once he'd decided that meeting the rest of the Hyoutei team would probably happen sooner or later, but in practice it was harder than in theory.

Yuuta solved the problem for him, removing his arm from Atobe's grasp and instead linking their fingers together.

Atobe felt all the blood in his body rushing to his face and even Yuuta's ears had gone pink.

He cleared his throat, daring anyone at the table to say anything.

"This is Fuji Yuuta," he settled for. Plain and simple. "We're uh…"

"Yuu-chan? As in, _the_ Yuu-chan?" Gakuto blurted out, looking very much like Ootori.

Atobe's temper flared. "Of course!" he snapped loudly. "And he's not Yuu-chan to you, Mukahi Gakuto! His name's Fuji Yuuta so learn it."

"I thought Yuu-chan was a girl," Gakuto protested. "Isn't Yuu-chan a girl? What happened to your girlfriend, Atobe?"

Atobe shot him a withering glare.

Yuuta could only let his mouth fall open, blatantly staring in shock.

There was silence at the table before Jirou grinned again, kicking his legs and fiddling with his menu. "Hi Fuji-kun. You remember me, don't you? I remember we met a few weeks ago in town."

"Hi…" Yuuta returned weakly.

If Atobe was still annoyed about their misunderstanding the day before, it didn't show. He squeezed Yuuta's fingers and Yuuta squeezed back, the two of them a bundle of nerves standing next to each other and feeling nervous and worried but okay.

"Sit down, Fuji-kun," Jirou grinned, waving a menu.

"Yes, sit down Yuu-chan," Oshitari smirked, apparently recovering from his shock a lot more quickly than his doubles partner.

Yuuta glanced at him uncertainly but let go of Atobe's hand and sat, Atobe following him and taking the spot next to him.

"I'm really rather curious," Oshitari said, leaning across the table, his elbows resting on its surface, his chin on his hands. "Why don't you tell us how you met?"

"And why would you want to know something like that?" Atobe replied coolly, waving his hand for the waiter passing by.

Oshitari grinned like the cat that got the canary. "Oh, I don't know," he replied casually. "I might just want to find a Yuu-chan of my own, you know?"

Yuuta felt Atobe's hand touching his leg under the table. He linked his fingers with Atobe's again, the palms of their hands together, nervous energy making him want to hold onto something to steady him. There was a feeling he couldn't quite describe building within him and he only knew it came from being with Atobe, simply just being the person next to him.

He'd realised something the day before, and he realised it again as they sat together, surrounded by Atobe's team mates with their mountains of ice cream; Jirou slurping at a milkshake and Ootori and Shishido eating bits of each other's serves of ice cream, Kabaji silently working away at a pile of chocolate covered fruit and ice cream, Gakuto blatantly staring and asking questions, which Oshitari just seemed to find increasingly amusing.

When he picked up his spoon to dig into his ice cream, Yuuta's elbow touched Atobe's arm, and they glanced at each other, an embarrassed look on Yuuta's face and an inquisitive one on Atobe's.

The words went unspoken between them and Yuuta turned his attention back to his ice cream, hurriedly shoving a large spoonful into his mouth.

Atobe smirked when Yuuta ended up screwing his face up, his teeth cold and his mouth frozen. Yuuta kicked his leg under the table and Atobe coughed on a mouthful of ice cream.

Oshitari raised an eyebrow and Yuuta tried to avoid his piercing gaze, trying to look at least a little innocent. He failed, but Atobe at least could see the funny side of it, smirking.

Yuuta realised there had been a line between he and Atobe before, and sometime since they'd met, they'd crossed it.

He'd thought he'd been able to pinpoint the moment things had changed, but he'd been wrong. It wasn't that there had been one single moment, but rather that sometime since they'd met, it had stopped just being about Atobe or just about him.

It was about the two of them together. It wasn't about anyone else; about what anyone else said or did or even what they thought.

It was Atobe and Yuuta and the fact that they liked each other and that was all that mattered. It was about them and it was a feeling no one could take from them.

Yuuta didn't think he could be any happier if he tried.

.fin.


	17. Omake

Notes: Finished! I think someone asked if there was another sequel or series after this one, but there isn't. I have other atoyuu ficlets I've written but not another series. Thanks for reading everything until now!

Archive: No.

**About Us**

Omake

By Miki

Inui peered in the shop window, staring at a heap of stuffed animals in the corner of the front window display. He suspected Kaidou might react unfavourably if he suspected Inui had been following him all morning, especially since the chances he actually wanted Inui to know he'd been staring at such things were slim to none, or, about three percent, allowing for a small margin of error.

He wondered what the fluffy creatures had that he didn't have. Ears? He had those, though his weren't fluffy. Black noses? Furry, huggable stomachs? Fat legs? Inui wanted none of those really.

He sighed a little, scribbling in his notebook until a voice startled him.

"Seigaku's Inui! What are you doing here?"

He spun, recognising the voice quickly. "Ah, Hyoutei's Mukahi and Oshitari," he nodded in recognition. He flicked to the back pages of his notebook, regretting he hadn't brought his other with him. This one was Kaidou's, but the back pages were dedicated to impromptu research. Gakuto and Oshitari's data could be recorded here and transferred into his Hyoutei book at a later date.

"I'm collecting data," Inui replied in response to the question.

"Oh?" Gakuto turned up his nose a little. "Stuffed toys don't play tennis."

Inui adjusted his glasses. "I would think it would be a problem if they did," he replied, the snark of Gakuto's reply lost on him. "What are you doing here?"

"We're late, actually," Oshitari said, giving Gakuto a look. He'd had enough running for one day, even if he had a suspicion it had something to do with Yuu-chan and their spying on the weekend. Oshitari had probably been fibbing when he'd said Atobe hadn't seen them. "We're on our way to a team meeting," Gakuto added, lest Inui think Hyoutei had time to waste in their preparation for the upcoming competition.

Inui scribbled in his note book, mumbling to himself.

Gakuto suspected no one was quite as fun to play with as Atobe and wondered if there were any better candidates around. "Say, Inui, you wouldn't happen to have any good data on Atobe, would you?"

Inui paused, glasses glinting as he looked up – or rather, down – at Gakuto. "What kind of data do you want?"

Gakuto perked up. "The dirty kind," he answered quickly. "About his girlfriend and things like that." Things they could use to get their revenge, was what he meant.

"Ah, I was unaware that Atobe had a girlfriend," Inui replied, shaking his head slightly. "I'm afraid I cannot help you, though I do keep other data on Seigaku's rivals… which is, however, still classified at the current time."

Gakuto blew a raspberry. "You're no fun," he sulked, grasping Oshitari's arm. "Come on, we're going to get more laps like this."

Inui watched the two of them go, and then started off after them.

Atobe's girlfriend could give rather a lot of insights into the Hyoutei captain's head, he suspected.

(S)

Inui dialled Tezuka's number quickly, waiting for the other boy to pick up the phone.

There was a click.

"Yes."

Inui sucked in a breath. "Yes, Tezuka. This is Inu-"

He blinked, hearing the beep signalling the end of the call. Frowning, he redialled.

"Yes, Tezuka. Inui here. I thought you'd be interested to know that Atobe has a boyfrie-"

Cut off again. Inui gave a long, hard stare at his phone and made a note to check it later. Such unreliable service wasn't acceptable.

He squatted down behind the post box, peering around it to stare in at the window, adjusting his glasses. Perhaps he should have informed Tezuka that Atobe's boyfriend appeared, by all counts, to be Fuji's younger brother.

He made a note to ask Fuji about it the next morning.

(S)

"Was that Inui?" Fuji questioned, fiddling with his textbook.

Tezuka gave a nod. "How did you know?"

Fuji smiled. "You always hang up on him."

Tezuka considered, about to tell Fuji he was wrong, when he realised Fuji was absolutely right. He'd almost never allowed Inui to get past the first ten seconds.

"What did he want?" Fuji asked, playing with his pen and flicking it between his fingers.

"He wanted to tell me about Atobe's boyfriend," Tezuka said, pausing and thinking about the words he was saying. How he managed to say them with a straight face when there was clearly something wrong with Inui's observation skills – maybe he needed thicker glasses? – was beyond him.

The thought of Atobe having a boyfriend… Did Inui mean girlfriend perhaps? He made a note to question Inui about it in the morning, just to clarify.

"Anyway, about this question," he pointed out, resuming his previous position on the floor and turning his textbook to face Fuji.

Fuji was staring at him with open eyes.

"Fuji?" Tezuka asked, wondering if something was wrong.

Fuji merely smiled in reply, closing his eyes and reverting back to his usual serene look. Tezuka knew better, of course.

"Nothing," he answered. "I'm going to have to… discuss things… with Inui tomorrow morning."

Tezuka blinked.

(S)

Hiyoshi grumbled under his breath as he jogged. _Stupid senpai_. He resented the fact that he'd had to find out from Taki where the rest of the regulars had gone off to without him, and he resented the fact that just because he'd been a minute late out of their coach's office, he'd had to jog all the way here instead of getting a lift in Atobe's vehicle.

The ice cream parlour wasn't that far away from the school. He could jog it easily, but it was the fact that even Ootori obviously hadn't told anyone to wait for him that grated at him.

He thought about getting his revenge on Ootori the next day, about putting a blob of gum on his chair before he sat down. He thought about his meeting with Sakaki-kantoku and all the privileges he'd get as captain next year. He could make everyone else run laps then. As many as he wanted! A hundred! Two hundred!

"Ack What the-!"

His backside hurt. He thought about… "Inui?"

Inui pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, Hiyoshi's arm having nearly pulled them off as Inui had yanked him down and behind the post box. "Hiyoshi Wakashi," he said.

Hiyoshi tried to shift backwards, away from Inui. "… Seigaku's Inui… What are you doing here?"

Inui gave his best impression of a smile. "I am conducting research. Would you care to assist me by answering a few simple questions?"

He rummaged in his school bag for a moment, pulling out a viscous green substance in a clear container. "I'm sure you'll find this exercise to be of mutual benefit."

Hiyoshi swallowed hard.

(S)

As Yuuta and Atobe followed the other regulars out of the ice cream shop, Yuuta wondered if he should tell Atobe he could let go now.

It was nice, holding Atobe's hand, but it was kind of… well, girly and Gakuto kept staring at them with eyeballs the size of saucers, which wasn't really doing that much for Yuuta's nerves. Oshitari kept giving him smiles, which struck Yuuta as being about the creepiest things he'd seen since Mizuki had introduced him to green avocado facial cleansing masks and had proceeded to demonstrate their use on himself.

Throughout the time they'd been at the table, Gakuto had managed to ask three questions that made even Atobe's face turn pink and gotten as far as "So, have you guys done-" except that Kabaji had put his hand over Gakuto's mouth then and someone had kicked him under the table.

It made Yuuta almost glad for his team mates, though he didn't want to know what his brother was going to say about this if Gakuto and Oshitari let the cat out of the bag… and Yuuta was sure they'd do it sooner or later.

The thought made him a little nervous again.

Perhaps he didn't mind holding Atobe's hand after all. He wasn't going to do anything else – not in public and not in front of Atobe's team mates – but he guessed it was good enough like this.

(S)

Behind the post box, Hiyoshi's mouth fell open.

"Ii data," Inui muttered.

(S)

"Shishido-senpai," Ootori smiled, holding out his hand.

They were walking home along their usual route, having split from the rest of the group after Gakuto started asking more annoying questions and Ootori started suspecting there might be impending punishments if he didn't stop. Besides, he was pretty surprised. They all were, really.

He wanted to ask Atobe all sorts of questions and only the fact that they were out in public – and perhaps the fact that Atobe was his captain and the fact that Gakuto had already asked a lot of the questions everyone was thinking – had stopped him. Besides, he wasn't sure that he'd like answering a whole bunch of questions about Shishido-senpai either, so he felt a little for Yuuta and the way he'd squirmed under Gakuto's sporadic interrogation.

For a moment, Shishido almost held out his hand to Ootori in return, then common sense struck him and he pulled a face. "No way," he snorted. "Go find someone else to do that with you!"

Ootori frowned. "But I don't want to do it with anyone else," he protested.

Shishido sighed, handed over his hand, and tried to pretend he couldn't see the look of pure joy on Ootori's face.

(S)

"Yuuta," Atobe frowned. "Why are you sitting all the way over there?"

Yuuta ignored the fact that his face was still red. He hoped he didn't have to see Gakuto again for a while, because now his questions were going around in his head and it was embarrassing to think of Gakuto saying "So have you guys done it yet?" over and over again.

It was doubly embarrassing, and he was almost annoyed at Atobe, for having let those guys run around calling him 'Yuu-chan' for months. It sounded like something his mother or brother would have called him when he was a kid.

"Are you sulking?" Atobe asked, a smirk on his face. "It really wasn't that bad, was it?"

Yuuta snorted. It was fine for Atobe to say that. He hadn't had so many pairs of eyeballs analysing him the whole time he'd been eating, though Yuuta had to admit Atobe was probably just as nervous as he'd been. Perhaps even more so. They were his friends, after all.

Atobe watched Yuuta, watching the traffic pass. He looked funny; caught between seriousness and a smile. "Come here," he said, trying not to smile at the scowl that passed across Yuuta's face; the look he expected. He could see Yuuta's initial reaction was to tell him 'no', so he reached across and yanked on Yuuta's arm, pulling him sprawling, surprised, almost into his lap.

"Much better," he smirked.

Yuuta looked about ready to snap for a moment, then he sighed. "Atobe-san…" he muttered.

"Hm?" Atobe responded, his hands steadying Yuuta, rather content to have him pressed up against him rather than a whole metre away on the other side of the back of the limousine.

"You do realise you can just call me Atobe, you know, Yuuta."

"Oh," Yuuta said, mind blank. "Okay." He tightened his hold on Atobe, not knowing how much longer the car trip would last but not wanting to let go. He wasn't about to admit it, but it felt so good just to finally touch Atobe properly; not just a passing touch or a brushing of hands or anything. A proper hug. "You know, Ootori-kun looked like he was going to fall off his chair," he muttered, pressing his forehead against Atobe's shoulder.

"That's Ootori," Atobe responded, sounding amused. "He means well."

Yuuta didn't reply in words.

He pulled his head back and focused his eyes on Atobe's lips. Then he kissed Atobe slowly, a little uncertain of himself, a little worried he might be doing something wrong.

But Atobe was Atobe. Yuuta figured if he was doing it wrong, Atobe would tell him. He didn't.

Atobe's neck and jaw were hot where Yuuta touched him with his hands. His lips were warm, his mouth warmer still and the sensations his hands sent through Yuuta's body were tingly and strange and set Yuuta's blood pulsing loudly in his ears. Atobe's hands slowly worked their way up under the cotton of Yuuta's shirt and against his skin, fingers drawing lines and tracing the lines of his shoulder blades, of his back, the curve of his lower back and just below the waist of his pants where his belt was just too tight against Yuuta's hips for Atobe to fit his hand under it.

Yuuta kissed him back slowly, trying to savour the sensations and trying not to lose his mind when he felt like he was about to go crazy. He'd been wrong about Tachibana An, he realised. It was only Atobe who made his body feel like this; like he was in overdrive, as though he was losing all sensible thought from his head. It wasn't just the way Atobe kissed him either; it was everything about him, from the way he smiled to the way he nearly drove Yuuta up the wall with his expressions and his smugness and the way he just _knew_ he'd get what he wanted in the end.

Atobe's teeth nipped at his lip as Yuuta stared at him through hazy eyes. "That feels funny," he murmured.

Atobe did it again, a little harder, kissing Yuuta again as though to make up for the sudden pain.

Yuuta could feel Atobe's hands on his chest. He could feel his shirt coming totally untucked, his tie and collar feeling too tight against his neck as Atobe pushed the thin material upwards, making room for his fingers to roam Yuuta's skin. Thumbs flicked at his nipples, surprising them both; Atobe surprising himself with his boldness and Yuuta with the feeling.

Yuuta wanted to let his hands do the same but his fingers struggled to grip Atobe's shirt material to pull it from where it was tucked into his pants and it was hard trying to concentrate on what Atobe was doing at the same time.

He settled for rubbing his hands against Atobe's hips instead, trying to steady himself and feeling the creases in Atobe's pants where his legs joined his hips, feeling the bumps of his hips under his shirt, feeling the hardness of his stomach and the smoothness of the lines of his body.

It was a moment before he registered that Atobe had spoken his name.

"Yuuta."

"What?" Yuuta murmured, having trouble getting his voice louder than an out of breath sounding mumble. "I think…" he trailed off, trying to think of anything other than Atobe's hands still touching his body, or his lips against his jaw.

Coherent thought returning, he sighed, letting out a breath. "I think I'm late for dinner… I think… I'll be…"

Atobe kissed the corner of his lips. "Be what?"

"Late," Yuuta finished off, suddenly remembering, eyes wide. "I think I'm up to two warnings again this month. I don't want to be grounded."

"You don't want to continue?" Atobe questioned, confusing Yuuta.

"Continue what?" he questioned, trying to push Atobe away from him.

Atobe smirked, picking up the phone to instruct the driver in the front.

"Change of plans," Atobe said, trying – and succeeding, Yuuta thought – to sound composed. "We're going home." Then he hung up the phone and smiled.

Yuuta watched as the limousine turned the corner, diverting from the road that led back to St Rudolph.

He wondered if it wasn't too late to change his mind, but really, he didn't care.

He kissed Atobe again.

.fin.


End file.
